Without Mortality
by starlightisms
Summary: Some people call it fate. Destiny. Others, coincidence. Regardless, two people are born quite a while before their time - but that higher power, whatever it is, has its ways of making them stay until the proper era rolls around. How does this change the series of events that would've occurred otherwise? Hiatus until I finish it!
1. One Step Down

_"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."  
\- Mars, from __Son of Neptune__, by Rick Riordan_

* * *

**. : WITHOUT MORTALITY : .  
**_... "shibō nakute" ..._

_a detective conan x magic kaito au fanfiction  
feat. immortal!Shinichi and immortal!Ran_

One Step Down

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.

* * *

_... hajimeru ..._

* * *

_Drip. Drip._

_The moon, glowing red, a halo surrounding its shape. Liquid sliding off its round surface - tears, blood-like in the light of the solemn orb hanging in the sky._

_Drip. Drip. _

_Pooling on the ground. A puddle of crimson, shimmering, surrounded by the forest's lush grasses._

_Drip. Drip._

_Hypnotizingly steady, agonizingly slow, the drops continue, but the pool does not grow._

_Drip. Drip._

_The grass shivers, the red seeping into the soil, into its roots. _

_Drip. Drip._

_A hand stirs the liquid, and then withdraws, trembling. Another does the same._

_Drip - !_

_Vanishing, the ruby orb leaves behind only a phantom image, its original, ghostly white self, resting calmly in the sky. There are no tears. The pool has gone._

_Time flies past. Day and night, chasing each other even though they cannot meet._

_The red moon returns, but vanishes quickly, before it can cry._

_Stained by ashes and blood and death, all the forest dies but for the grass._

_Nobody touches them, the cursed plants, for a long while._

_Time flies past. Day and night, fleeing from each other even though there is nothing to fear._

_Then, hands dig up the earth, the grass, scooping it up, and passing it on. Moving._

_Stopping. End of movement. And the pain begins._

_Time ticks, slower than before._

_End it… Please. _

_Tick. Tock._

_Burning desire. What? What is it?_

_!Ti DnE_

_Tick. Tock._

_Who - ?_

_!EmOh KcAb Em GnIrB_

_Tick. Tock._

_Desire. No words, only feelings, and pain._

_\- eSaElP ,yKs EhT_

_Tick._

_I don't understand -_

_!pLeH_

_\- what you want -_

_!hCuM oOt S'tI_

_\- stop, stop, stop!_

_The raw emotion, crushing, suffocating, helpcan'tbreathe - !_

_( t. o. c. k. )_

_It stops._

_( t. i. m. e. 's. u. p. )_

_But he feels only worse._

_( y. o. u. 'v. e. l. o. s. t. e. v. e. r. y. t. h. i. n. g. )_

* * *

Blue eyes snapped open, gasping pants wrenching the breath from his lungs.

_I'm - I'm alive?_

"Hey, wake up!"

_Of course I'm alive. The curse -_

"You okay?"

Shinichi squinted, trying to make sense of the colorful blurs in his eyes. Were those - police officers? _Great, at least now the Organization won't be able to check on my corpse, or lack thereof…_

"Can you stand up, little boy?"

_Little what?_

An intelligent "huh?" escaped his mouth as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Maybe he hadn't heard properly. His ears were ringing rather harshly, anyways. That poison was something else - a torture device, maybe. For someone like him, anyway.

"Are you okay, little boy?"

Man, the policeman's flashlights were _blinding._ Shinichi leaned away from the bright beam, but his attention was soon caught on something else. "Little boy?" he echoed distractedly, looking up at the police in confusion.

_What the hell is he talking about? I'm a junior in high school - for now, anyway - surely that's old enough not to be considered a 'little boy' anymore, right?_

"How'd you hurt your head?"

_Hurt…? Oh. Right. That guy - Gin, I think? - he smashed my head in from behind…_ Touching the wound, he hissed when it stung sharply at the contact._ That was pretty stupid of me, not watching my back. Too used to Ran, I guess._

_Wait._

"Eh?" Shinichi stared at the too-long sleeves, heart stuttering. His gaze followed the loose clothing down his body, and ended up gazing dumbfoundedly at the huge pants on his legs.

_What?! What the - I haven't worn anything that was this freaking big since the last time the cycle bounced back to start and I tried on my old clothes - Ran laughed at me for _days_, how could I forget -_

"You must've been scared…" said the policeman, putting his hands under Shinichi's arms. "But we're here now, so don't worry, little guy!"

And with that statement, he lifted Shinichi into the air quickly and easily, eliciting a startled noise from the high school detective. He yelped again when the man nearly _tossed_ him into another policeman's arms as the original one pulled out a walkie-talkie.

_How freaking strong is this guy, tossing me around like that?_ Shinichi thought sourly, eyes wide with shock and panic. He quickly focused on the man with the walkie talkie, listening in on the conversation.

"… at site B, and we've found an injured young boy. We're taking him to the medical room, over!" Someone on the other side of the walkie talkie crackled back a question. "Well, I'd guess his age at around five or seven. Grade school…"

But Shinichi didn't hear the rest. All he heard was _his age at around five._

_Five? I'm not supposed to be five, I'm supposed to be seventeen already, dammit! What did that poison do to me? To the curse?_

And then he flinched.

_Aw, shit. How am I supposed to explain this to Ran?_

* * *

Pacing in miserable silence back and forth, Shinichi used all his will to refrain from running out the door that very second.

It wasn't like that would achieve much. His head was _throbbing_ (thanks a lot, Gin you _jerk_, for hitting as hard as you possible could), the gem's effect fighting furiously against the doctor's medicine, so he'd probably run into the wall instead. Besides, there were a couple police officers standing in front of that very door, watching over him carefully.

One of them was muttering something about "ran away from home" and "searches", neither of which was a very appealing topic for Shinichi. They wouldn't find anything, anyway.

He caught another glance of himself in the mirror and scowled fiercely at it, pausing his pacing to glare at the reflection. Despite what the officer said, he was _seven_, not five. Which wasn't really much better, but added even more to the mystery of _why_ and _how._ If he shrunk because of the poison, he expected to be a bit smaller, really. Why seven? Why the _difference_?

"Oh well…" one of the policeman said. Shinichi glanced over at them. "Get in touch with HQ, we'll take him to the creche there…"

He nearly choked. _A creche? Of all places - no. No way, not ever. That's it, I'm gone. Bye!_

Quickly, the shrunken boy scanned the room for an exit, before spying a window. It was still open, for whatever reason - perfect.

By the time the police turned to baby-talk him into going with them, he was long gone, streaking down the streets as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Shouts of alarm resounded behind him, but he ignored them steadfastly, intent on fleeing like his life hung in the balance.

Suddenly, he heard a low growl from behind him. Risking a look back, Shinichi groaned upon seeing the large dog emerging from the shadows, lunging at him with furious barks. Its leash was held by a policemen, who proceeded to declare unneededly, "There he is! Don't let him get away!"

Even more desperate, Shinichi veered around a corner and pulled up a mental map of the area, picking and choosing which roads to take.

It was kind of hard to concentrate with the shouting and barking behind him.

_Give me a break! I'm not a freaking criminal, let me go already, geez!_

* * *

A short time later found him panting for breath, leaning heavily against a wall. Exhausted, he pushed himself off the wall and staggered off, keeping safely to the side of the road.

_At least I lost them… Good thing it's raining, the mongrel can't catch my scent like this… Arg, I almost forgot how little endurance kids have, this is totally ridiculous._ Shinichi frowned, pausing. _Speaking of which… I knew the crows were experimenting, but why poison? They're more of a "shoot to kill" type. I'll have to ask…_

With a roar, a large truck barrelled past, cutting his thoughts off and spraying dirty water all over his small figure, completely soaking him to the bone.

"Well," he deadpanned as he looked at his dripping clothes, "this is absolutely pitiful."

* * *

"How the hell am I supposed to get in?"

Shinichi glared at the tall gates as if they'd betrayed him. _Can't even get into my own house. These things are too damn tall. First thing I'm doing is lowering them. Or at least putting something kid-sized friendly in._

With a sigh, Shinichi decided to resort to climbing over them. He reached out to touch the metal grates - _boom!_

Flinching away, he took a hesitant step back. The explosion came from the wall separating this house from the next house over… Oh. Regaining his confidence, Shinichi sighed in relief, "It's just the hakase… Who can help me. Right. Hey, Agasa-hakase!"

Coughing, the old professor waved away the remaining plumes of smoke and stood up. Noticing Shinichi's call, he straightened and looked at the sopping wet little boy.

"Hm? Who are you?" he asked, straightening his glasses.

"It's me, Shinichi."

"Ah, one of Shinichi's relatives!" Agasa exclaimed, nodding. Shinichi made a disbelieving face at him. _Did he not hear what I just said?_ "You look just like he did at your age…"

He gritted his teeth - of course the hakase wouldn't recognize him, or believe him; the idea of a person regressing age was so outlandish to most everyone that they automatically dismissed it, even subconsciously. But then how could he prove it…?

The old inventor was uselessly ringing the bell when Shinichi came upon an idea. _Ah. In the way only that Shinichi Kudo can…_

Haughtily, Shinichi adopted a confident pose and said, "Hakase! You just came from the restaurant called 'Colombo', and you were in a hurry, too!"

As expected, the old man froze. "What? H-how did you know that?"

"From your clothes, hakase. There are signs of it having been wet on the front, but not on the back; that's proof that you've been running through the rain…" A smirk slid onto Shinichi's face with practiced ease as he continued to explain his deduction. "There's also some mud on your pants, and the only area around here that could've been that muddy is the construction area in front of Colombo, not to mention you have some of their special meat sauce stuck in your mustache."

"Y-you…" Completely blindsided by the deduction, Agasa only stared at the boy incredulously.

Shinichi, for his part, only tsked and waved a finger at him, condescendingly stating, "It's elementary, Agasa-kun!"

_Bah! Who's idea was it to be so egotistical? … Right, it was mine. Ugh. Well, at least it's easy to identify me like that._

And as if to prove him right, Agasa's eyes widened and he choked out, "Sh-Shinichi? You're really Shinichi-kun?"

"The one and only," Shinichi assured, now fully relieved. "I ran into some - some men in black, and they drugged me with something. I'll tell you the whole story inside my house, just open these stupid gates for me, will you? I'm too short."

* * *

"G-gun smuggling?" Agasa sputtered, stunned.

Shinichi nodded distractedly, slipping on his kiddy clothes. _Didn't think I'd have to use these for at least another fifteen years or so… Well, it's a good thing I have them prepared and all. Anyway… _"Yeah, and there was a guy blackmailing him, too."

"So they gave you some sort of prototype poison to keep your mouth shut, right?"

Shinichi nodded again, satisfied that the clothes fit. _Not quite five, after all. I'm definitely seven. Still strange nevertheless._

Meanwhile, Agasa continued to muse. "Hm… So the mysterious effects of this unfinished drug shrunk your body… That's a really strange side effect."

_Well, yeah, but if they were testing on what I think they were testing on, this sort of 'strange' is really common - more of the norm. I wonder how this'll affect me… But I should probably find a way to reverse it, first._

"Hey, hakase, do you think you could make the counter-drug for this?" Shinichi asked. "Since you're a genius and all," he added slyly.

"Definitely not without knowing what they put into it in the first place," came the immediate reply. "I need to have the compound to know how to break it down without breaking _you_ down in the process!"

"… Right." _Should've expected that._ "What if I went after these people and got you some of this drug?"

"Yes, if you get some, I might be able to do something," Agasa admitted. He paused, though, and a strange look crossed his face. Suddenly, he lunged forward, grabbing Shinichi by the shoulders and shouting, "Shinichi-kun! You mustn't tell anyone about this!"

_What?_ "Eh? Why?"

At this point, the old man was obviously panicking. "If they find out that you, Shinichi Kudo, are still alive, they'll come after you again! Not to mention the danger they'll pose to everyone around you!"

Shinichi hesitated, inwardly scoffing at the idea - _I've kept you all safe for this long, haven't I?_ \- but Agasa plowed on, nearly shrieking with hysteria, in Shinichi's opinion.

"Understand? The fact that you are Kudo Shinichi is a secret between you and me! You must not tell anyone else! _Especially not Ran-kun!_"

Knock, knock. "Shinichi, are you there?"

_Speak of the devil. _He glanced at the professor. _Dammit, how am I going to explain this? 'Oh, Ran will actually kind of recognize me on sight because we're used to seeing each other cycle through the ages of five to nineteen-twenty-ish together'?_

Another knock. "Shinichi, are you there? You could at least answer the phone if you're home! You left the door unlocked, too…"

"Quickly! Hide!" Agasa hissed, shoving the shrunken detective away.

Deciding to go with the plan, Shinichi dashed behind his father's desk, just as the door opened - "Oh, Agasa-hakase," Ran greeted.

"R-Ran-kun! I haven't seen you in a while!" Agasa laughed nervously.

She raised an eyebrow at him, but let it slide, and looked around the large room instead. "Wow, I'm always amazed by how many books there are," she said, gazing at the ceiling-high bookshelves approvingly. "And they're all mystery novels… How does he even reach the ones on the top?" She muttered the last part to herself, chuckling a bit.

Agasa continued to ramble out nonsensical things. "Yes, well, you know that Shinichi-kun's father is a world famous mystery novelist…"

"Growing up with these books turned him into a crazy detective, didn't it," Ran continued drily.

"Shut up," Shinichi retorted quietly, annoyed. Then he froze, remembering that she had crazy-sharp ears, and slapped a hand over his mouth belatedly. _Oops. There goes that plan._

"Hm? Who's that over there?"

He could picture the gleam in her eyes. He knew that she knew she'd found something. But with the hakase stammering, "He's, uh," Shinichi decided to hell with it all, he'd make something out of Agasa's suffering, and dove into one of the drawers, yanking out his dad's spare pair of reading glasses. Pushing the lenses out, he slipped them onto his face just as Ran cooed at him and turned him around.

She froze, eyes wide. She mouthed, _Shinki?_

"Um, hi," he said shyly, putting a finger to his lips. _Shh. The hakase._

She gave him a very deadpan look before saying, "This kid…"

Shinichi panicked for a moment. _Nooo, just play along please!_

"… is so cute!" she finished, smirking devilishly at Shinichi before suffocating him in a hug. _Aw, crap, no, lemme go!_ After a moment of tightening her hold on his desperate writhing, Ran finally released him. He scrambled away, pressing himself against the nearest bookshelf. "Who is this kid?" she asked, directing the question to Agasa.

The inventor sighed in relief before replying, "Oh, he's a distant relative of mine."

Humming, Ran turned back to Shinichi. She raised an eyebrow, asking sweetly, "And how old are you - five?"

"Seven, actually," he replied, looking her in the eyes to make his point. She nodded very slightly before asking another question, inching closer.

"So you're a first grader?"

"Y-yeah."

She grinned evilly, kneeling so that her face was _centimeters_ from his. "What's your name?"

_Dammit, Ran, you know I suck at the name thing! _"Um, uh," he averted his eyes, his gaze landing on the books closest to him, and he shakily read off of the books, "Ah, Conan! Edogawa Conan!"

She muffled a snort. "Conan? That's a weird name."

"Shut it," he hissed, blushing slightly. Then, louder, "Nuh-uh, My dad's a Conan Doyle fan, so he named me after him, see?"

Ran shrugged, straightened, and wandered a little ways away.

"Conan?" Agasa repeated in a whisper. "You sound like a foreigner!"

"I couldn't think of anything else, and she was pushing me," Shinichi huffed. _And she knew it._

"Hey, hakase, where's Shinichi?" Ran inquired, having finished her brief examination of the room. "I don't see him anywhere…" She wasn't looking in Shinichi's direction at that particular moment, so that statement technically wasn't a lie.

"Shinichi-kun? Oh, he, uh, he was here earlier, but he had something to do and left," Agasa quickly improvised vaguely.

"Hm," Ran mused, looking carefully at Shinichi. He returned the look evenly.

Suddenly, Agasa lifted Shinichi off the ground and held him out to her. "Oh, Ran-kun, would you mind taking care of him at your place for a little while?"

Ran blinked, taking Shinichi into her arms. He twisted, freeing himself almost instantly, and landed safely on the floor as Ran voiced, "Eh?"

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Agasa elaborated, "Well, you see, his parents are in the hospital because of an accident, so they asked me to look after him, but I live alone and don't know the slightest thing about taking care of a child…"

"I'm fine with that," Ran agreed, "Though I'll have to ask Otou-san."

"That's great," Agasa beamed. "You can take it up with him, then."

Idly, Ran pulled out her phone and dialed her dad's number to do just that. Meanwhile, Shinichi padded over to the hakase, murmuring, "Not that I'm not okay with it, but why'd you ask that?"

"You can't stay in your house - that's the first place they'd check," Agasa explained. "And mine is too close to yours. But Ran-kun, her house is also a detective agency…"

"Ah," Shinichi realized. "There might be cases about those people - nice thinking, hakase." Internally, though, he hoped and prayed that no such cases would come up.

Just then, Ran clicked her phone shut. "Well, he'll be fine with it either way," she announced, and Shinichi suddenly very much doubted that the old man had given his expressed permission, but Ran wasn't exactly one to care. "Shall we get going, then?"

Shinichi hopped up to her cutely. "Yay!" _I'm in such deep trouble._

She smirked at him, then took his hand and led him outside. "See you later, hakase!" she called, waving at Agasa.

"Yeah," Shinichi chimed. "Oji-chan, bye-bye!"

"Bye, Conan-kun, Ran-kun!"

* * *

"Alright, now that we're alone, tell me what happened."

Ran looked expectantly at the significantly shorter of the two, who sighed. He stuck his free hand into his pocket as they walked along.

"I may have accidentally forgotten to watch my back."

"Uh-huh. This is why you don't go anywhere without me, Shinichi."

"Conan," he corrected instantly. "You never know when a crow's watching. Besides, changing identities, remember? We've gone through this. I'm just a bit early."

Ran conceded. "Very early, more like. So what happened to the flock next, Conan-kun?"

_Oh, so we're doing that now? Fine. I love bird stories, anyway._

"Two adult crows were dealing stuff with a fat pigeon," Conan said happily, shifting into a more boyish tone. "Daddy raven saw one of the crows and the pigeon, but the other crow came from behind and hurt his head. Then the crows stuffed something into the raven's mouth and flew off with the pigeon. The thing in his mouth was red and poisonous and really new! But the raven woke up fine a little later, surrounded by robins, so obviously it didn't work. He looked like a baby bird, though. Then he flew away!"

"Wonderful," Ran said drily. "And what did the daddy raven learn from this?"

"Don't go anywhere without the mommy raven," Conan deadpanned. _She's never going to let this go, is she._ He paused, then said, "I think one of the crows was named Gin - he was all silvery! The baby raven who painted herself black with blood told me so."

"The - oh, her. Is that why you ran after them so fast?"

He shook his head. "Actually, I didn't know they'd be there… But crows are omens of bad things, right? That's what mommy tells me. Maybe the daddy bird got worried and got ahead of himself a little, trying to stop it."

"And left the mommy bird to get swept up in the rest of the flock," Ran finished. She sighed.

"… Sorry, Ran," Conan whispered, tugging on her arm.

She stopped. Turning to him, she knelt so they were face-to-face, and said quietly, "I was scared. I knew it was Them, and… They were experimenting on the grass. Using it for drugs and chemicals. We know that; our little painted bird told us. They could've broken the jewel's affect on us without even trying to - it was a _prototype_, nobody knew what it did - "

"I know," Conan breathed. "I'm sorry." _I didn't mean to worry you._

Wordlessly, Ran enveloped him in a hug. Unlike the times in his house, Conan didn't struggle against her. He just closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.

She held him like that for a few minutes, inhaling his scent, glad for his safety. Finally, she let go. "Don't do that ever again," she insisted fiercely.

"I promise," he agreed solemnly. Then, a slight smile appeared on his face. "Well, as much as I can, anyway." _We're trouble magnets, have you forgotten?_

She laughed.

* * *

"We're home," Ran said, looking up at the window that doubled as a sign. "Might not be as big as your house, but it does the trick."

Conan shrugged. "I like to think that the Kudo family has maybe too much money to spend. Anyway. Are you really sure that the old man's okay with me staying?"

"He will be," Ran said cheerfully.

Conan blinked uneasily. "Um, okay. I really - _whoa_!"

A blur suddenly blasted right behind Ran, nearly knocking her over with the gust of displaced air. She managed to stay on her feet. The other person, however, didn't quite manage to keep his balance, and tumbled onto the floor.

Ran held a hand to her heart, exclaiming, "Otou-san, you scared me!" She frowned at the groaning man on the ground. "And where are you at this time of the night? Drinking and mahjong again?"

"It's a job!" he shouted gleefully, springing to his feet. "I got a call earlier," he continued as he ran to the side of the street. "A little girl's been kidnapped by some men in black, and her parents called for me - they want my help!"

As he hailed a taxi and got in, Ran and Conan exchanged looks. The Organization was _notorious_ for being dressed in black. And that something that the old man couldn't face, especially not by himself.

"Hey, otou-san!" Ran called, diving into the cab after him. "We're coming too!"

"Take me to Yayoi, to the big mansion called 'Tani'," Ran's father told the driver excitedly, seemingly not noticing his daughter nor her words. "And step on it!" he added, cackling with laughter. "A case, a case! A case is calling me, the great detective Mouri Kogorou!"

"More _confused _than _great_," Conan interrupted. He grinned innocently up at Kogorou, who, true to Conan's statement, looked positively puzzled.

"Who are you and what're you doing here?" he demanded, leaning threateningly towards the completely unfazed smaller boy.

"He's a relative of Agasa-hakase," Ran explained. "We'll be taking care of him for a while."

Kogorou scowled. "No, we won't. He'll just ruin my job! Take him back!"

"No," Ran retorted. "Besides, we're in the the middle of the highway, we can't stop now."

Conan snickered at his expression. "But-"

"_Yes_, otou-san?" Ran asked sweetly, visibly clenching a fist.

Her father froze in dismay and quickly took back his words, saying, "Nothing, nothing."

She smiled. "That's what I thought."

Conan rolled his eyes, murmuring so softly that only Ran could hear him, "You're one scary lady."

She patted his head in mock sympathy. "Don't worry," she responded drily. "Once the daddy raven gets big again, I'm going to clock him, too."

* * *

It took hardly a minute before Conan and Ran came to their conclusion.

"It's not Them," Conan sighed, sitting on Ran's lap. "Any and all witnesses would've been killed, and yet this butler is still alive. Why would they kidnap a kid, anyway?"

"Evil minds work in strange ways." Ran shrugged. "Who knows?"

Humming in agreement, Conan turned half of his attention to the interrogation Kogorou was conducting. A few minutes ago he had only just managed to stop himself from going over there and questioning the people himself, belatedly remembering his shrunken status. Thankfully, he was at least allowed to listen in, given that Ran was "watching over him" and "keeping him occupied".

A few times, Ran had to clamp a hand over Conan's mouth to stop him from interrupting with his own interjections, but it went relatively well. With a few prompts from Ran (from Conan), Kogorou steered the conversation in the right direction.

While the butler recounted the tale, Conan scribbled a couple things down onto his notebook - but suddenly stopped. He muttered a curse.

"Conan-kun?"

"Hm?" He blinked up at Ran. "Oh. Um, the daddy raven can't fly the way he usually does, because then the crows might recognize it."

Realization flickered across her eyes. "And he can't just change it because little chicks aren't supposed to fly at all… Right?"

He nodded, sighing. Then he ripped the page out of the notebook and thoroughly shredded it. "He'll just have to make do without his wings," Conan said, rolling the paper into a ball. Unsure of where to put it, he hesitated.

Ran produced a lighter from her pocket. "Stole it from the disabled hawk," she explained quietly with a glance at her father, taking the paper into her hands. Raising her voice, she called to him, "I'm going to the restroom, otou-san!"

When he voiced back the okay, she winked at Conan and went off to burn the evidence.

Now alone, Conan turned his full attention to the discussion - "… but other than his yelling, it was really quiet," one of the women was saying.

_As usual, nobody knows what's going on._ Conan kicked a rock, bored. _If only I could ask them some questions myself._

The father suddenly began raising his voice, shouting something about money, and Conan paused to refocus. _So that's not what the butler heard from the kidnapper, huh… Unidentified voice, requesting money, this really is a run-of-the-mill case -_

_Wait._

Conan's eyes narrowed. Something was off.

_Damn_. There wasn't enough information; he'd have to sneak around a bit to find out more.

Withholding a sigh, Conan strolled casually around the bickering adults, coming to a stop beneath the tree the kidnapper was said to have climbed. He reached out a hand to touch the bark, but a sudden growl stopped him.

He turned, eyes wide.

Two massive dogs, teeth bared fiercely, lunged and barked loudly at him.

_Dogs again? Come on, wasn't that police dog from earlier this evening enough already?_

Backing away quickly - and relieved to see the dogs leashed, unable to follow him past a certain distance - Conan stopped just a few feet out of reach. The animals snarled, but quieted, watching him carefully. Then, they blinked and leaned forward, almost in curiosity.

_That's right,_ Conan recalled with a slight smile. _Give them a few moments, and animals will love or stare at us, unless we startle them or they're trained otherwise. _Then, his eyes narrowed in thought. _Wait. Dogs, by the tree… That doesn't add up. They barked at even me, when they first saw me. So…_

Conan took one step in Kogorou's direction, but halted. They wouldn't listen to him, not while he looked like a seven-year-old. So, he relented with a sigh and amused himself with the ball lying around, kicking it as he would a soccer ball, and waited for a chance to speak up.

A few moments later, he spotted the butler trying to edge away while everyone else was speaking. Conan narrowed his eyes as some more pieces of the case fell together.

Unfortunately, Ran still hadn't returned - he wondered if she encountered any trouble, but decided it was unlikely - so he'd have to do this himself. Setting the ball down, he went over to the sneaking butler and blatantly asked, "Where are you going?" The man froze, and he continued, "Are you going to the place where you hid the girl?"

His horrified face was good enough proof for Conan, and he backed away with a cheery, childish smile, having achieved all he needed to achieve.

_Now, I just have to figure out how to get the oji-san to realize this, too… _He turned his eyes to the said person thoughtfully. _Well, maybe…_

Approaching the tree with the leashed dogs again, who had at this point become even more curious at his strange presence, Conan kicked the ball over to the base of the tree. The dogs looked at the ball, and then at him.

He smirked, making direct eye contact with both of them.

And blue bled to red.

Thoroughly spooked, the dogs switched back to barking furiously at his approaching figure, loud enough to startle the adults.

Conan, pretending to be innocent, reeled backwards with a cry of, "Waa, oji-san, help me!" As the owner rushed forward to calm and restrain the dogs, he continued, "I went near the tree to get the ball, and then they started barking at me really madly!"

Kogorou thought for a moment. "Well, it makes sense that such a large house would have a couple of dogs or so."

_No, that's not it! Ugh, okay, less subtle._ Conan looked to the owner and said, "These dogs seem to bark loudly at anyone they don't know, neh?"

"Well, yes," the owner replied. "They're really superior guard dogs."

Comprehension dawned on Kogorou's face, and Conan heaved a relieved sigh. _He understands now, right? If it was so quiet, then that means the dogs didn't bark, which means…_

The butler was sneaking away again, Conan noted. He was about to make a move to delay him and allow Kogorou some more time to ponder it, but his worries were unfounded.

"Where are you going, Asou-san?" Kogorou asked lowly. "There's something odd about what you told us…"

Cheering internally, Conan bounced eagerly on the balls of his feet. _Yes! Go on, go on…_

Backing away a little, the butler opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, but Korogou plowed on. "If the kidnapper escaped by that tree, then the dogs would've barked like mad! But when the maids came out, they heard only your voice! Also, your account of the culprit is so stereotypical and ambiguous - there really was no man in black at all, was there? No, there wasn't, Mr. Kidnapper!"

_And there you go,_ Conan mentally applauded. While half-listening to the cowering butler stammering to the owner and detective, Ran re-emerged from the building.

"What happened?" she inquired, sitting down on a bench and gesturing for him to join her.

"Your 'tou-san took a hint," he replied, hopping up to sit beside her. "Although it's still bugging me - something about this case isn't right." He looked to the distressed butler, who was confessing where the girl was - in a hotel nearby, it seemed.

Just as Kogorou gleefully proclaimed the case to be closed and was about to fetch the little girl from the hotel, Conan's eyes widened and he leapt back onto his feet. Ran turned to him, worried and questioning.

"Something's still not right!" he hissed, turning the bits of information over in his head and examining every piece thoroughly. An idea started to form, but before it could elaborate, he noticed the maid ran up to the owner, babbling about the telephone.

"Who'd call at a time like this?" the owner grumbled grouchily, snatching the phone. "Who-"

"_Have you prepared the three million yen yet?"_

Everyone tensed. "Who are you?" the owner demanded.

Conan cursed under his breath.

"_I'm the one who called you a little while ago,"_ the other side of the connection said. _"The man who kidnapped your daughter. Remember?"_

Kogorou immediately turned to the butler and rapid-fired more questions at him, but Conan knew he couldn't have been behind this, not even if he had accomplices - which was unlikely, as that part of the case had been rather simple to puzzle out.

A little girl's cry came over the telephone, saying, _"Papa, save me!"_

"A-Akiko," the owner choked out, terrified.

Unable to bear it any longer, Conan dashed forward while the back-and-forth between the culprit and father continued a little longer, but when the father hesitated, echoing Kogorou's question, the culprit snapped out a threat if the police were to be involved. However, soon after, the little girl screamed, _"Papa, I'm in a school warehouse! I'm at some school where I can see a big chimney out the window-"_

The line cut off with a shriek as the kidnapped silenced the daughter and gave a few final, harsh words before hanging up.

However, Conan didn't quite care about anything spoken after _'school warehouse'_ and _'big chimney out the window'_. That was all he needed to know. And with the culprit probably panicking by now, they were running out of time; walking or running wouldn't cut it.

"Ran, cover me," he murmured. At her hesitant nod - she was worried, he could see it in how her eyes were bordering on red - he ran over to the leashed dogs once more.

They back away, whining, but he held out his hands for them to sniff. A moment passed, but they regained their courage and approached, nudging his palms.

"I'm going to need you for a minute," Conan whispered to the bigger of the two, sidling over to where the leash was attached and quickly unraveling it. Grasping it tightly, he jumped onto the dog's back. When it turned to look at him, confused, he stared right back and let his eyes shimmer. Once more, red blossomed into his irises, and the dog yelped, barked, and _ran_.

Perched on its back, Conan steered his canine steed with the leash and let the dog run outside and through the streets. Most of his mind was busy on deciphering on exactly _where_ the kidnapper and girl were, though. He mentally blazed through the gathered information, piecing together theories and taking them apart just as quickly.

_It hasn't been long - they must still be in the area - the chimney could be of a bath house or factory - and only five schools fit those conditions -_

He spotted the first school-and-nearby-chimney set and wheeled the dog to the warehouse. A quick examination later, he ran the dog back on to the road. _Not here!_

The second - _No!_

Third - _No!_

Fourth, fifth - _No, they're not here either!_

_Dammit, where could they be?_ Conan whirled through his mental database, trying to come up with solutions and reasons, but eliminating them just as fast as they came up. _They couldn't have gotten much further than this, could they?_

Beside him, the exhausted dog panted, now too tired to even run from him and his unnatural eyes without suitable prompting. Conan looked up and around in desperation; he couldn't keep this up for too much longer -

_Wait. That building._

And then he was back on the dog, once again dashing through the streets. He only went for a little bit, turning around to look at the tall skyscraper, and quickly found his solution.

_That's it, she must've seen this building - from the side, it looks like a chimney - and the only school at this angle - is Futatsubashi middle school!_

* * *

Slamming the door open, Conan shouted, "Stop!"

The culprit turned to him, eyes promising death, blade in hand. He was startled for a moment at seeing that a _child_ \- and a dog, to be fair - had discovered him, and gasped out, "Wha-"

Pure, undiluted terror caught his voice, and he choked on his words. Conan smirked, giving the kidnapper ample time to take in his blood red irises - glowing eerily in the dim lighting - before he clicked his tongue.

With a ferocious snarl, the dog lunged and attacked the kidnapper mercilessly. While it distracted him, Conan reeled the curse's power back in, his eyes returning to blue, before running over to the little girl lying on the ground.

"It's going to be okay now," he promised gently, removing the tape on her mouth and moving to untie her limbs.

She blinked up at him, half in shock, half in awe. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Edogawa Conan," he responded, finally releasing the knot binding her arms together. After a moment, he added drily, "Detective." _True, isn't it? Even if I'm just a bit small._

"A detective?" she echoed.

A sharp whine cut off whatever she was going to say next, and the dog skidded across the floor towards them, blood seeping from a gash on its shoulder. Conan grit his teeth - that hadn't been nearly enough time, though he expected that such a thing would've happened.

"Jambo!" the little girl cried in worry, inching towards the dog. On the other hand, Conan took several steps back when the culprit turned to him, spitting mad.

"I don't know what trick you pulled, but don't you _dare_ mess with me like that!" he growled, while Conan's mental process continuously repeated _shitshitshit, bad idea, abort,_ because he as a kid definitely did not have enough kicking power to retaliate properly, no sir, not at all, so it was time to _scram._

Only able to jump out of the way when the culprit swung his weapon - _a bat, good, the dog must've gotten rid of the blade_ \- at him, Conan kept a steady defensive, mind now split between ranting over how stupid he was, predicting and dodging the wooden weapon, and trying to figure a way out.

He almost tripped over a bunch of soccer balls - _no good, can't use these since I have no kicking power at _all - but did manage to scatter them everywhere - _slow him down, just a little bit, this is all Yusaku's fault for the goddamn detective-curiosity he infected me with_ \- and continued his quick reflexive dodging.

Something thrummed through his veins, colder than the adrenaline that was already flowing. Eyes shifted, blue seeping to crimson. But that wouldn't help.

Narrowly avoiding a strike directed at his chin, Conan flinched when his back smacked into the wall without warning (he'd forgotten about the dimensions of the warehouse), and he had no time to recover before the culprit raised his bat and brought it down - _hard_.

Pain exploded across his temple, and he cringed away from the assault with a sharp yell, only to topple to the side when he was struck again and again, over and over. Ice turned to fire, flames of agony burning away at his ribs, stomach, and - his _head…_

Vision swimming, stars spinning across his sight, Conan just barely made out the panicked screams of someone calling his name over the ringing of his ears…

_The little girl,_ he thought groggily, struggling to keep his eyes open. _Can't -_

"Kill one kid, kill two kids - it's all the same to me," the culprit was gloating, hefting the bloodied wood for a final blow, he knew he needed to move _now_ but he couldn't, and -

_Impactshockpain - fading -_

_Darkness - diS - aPp - Rov - aL - c - o - l - d -_

_Red._

* * *

…

_Who the _hell_ is screaming in my ear -_

His head was an inferno of pain, and he flinched the moment he returned to consciousness. Struggling to keep his hold on reality, he forced himself to blink open his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

Blood was splattered all over the place - _why is blood splattered all over the place? -_

Words, someone was talking, shouting, huh, sounding rather distressed actually, he should probably pay attention to what the guy was saying -

"I just _killed _you_,_ your brains are literally _all over the floor_,so _why_ are your eyes_ glowing red, _why are you_ blinking, _why are you_ looking at me -"_

"'Cause," Conan choked out in a gurgle of blood - _owowow, broken rib must've pierced my lung, I hope he dies a painful death_ \- "Ran-neechan's looking really mad right now, and she's hovering over you like one of those hellish crows."

"Language," she scolded.

"I have all the damn right to curse to my heart's content," he said, and passed out once more.

* * *

"Shinki."

_Mrrph. Amarante. What do you want?_

"Shin - ki."

_Whaaat._

"One more time, mister, and I'm going to split your head wide open."

_Right. Verbal. _"'M shleepin'."

"You've been 'shleepin'' for three days, you old man. Woke up to eat your meals and went straight to bed afterwards without even blinking. Be glad I covered for you whenever 'tou-san was around."

"'M _tired…"_ He knew better than to call _her_ old, even though she was just as old as he was. "An' th' jewel needs sleep, r'member?"

"It's time to get up." _Merciless much?_

"Comfy."

"That's no excuse. Come on, the hakase has been asking for you."

"Screw him." Finally, Conan opened his eyes. "He insists I keep my identity a secret. Annoying."

"For a good reason," Ran pointed out. "He doesn't know about Pandora, and you _should_ keep it a secret from everyone else. Just keep pretending I don't know. Not that hard."

Sighing, Conan sat up, rubbing his eyes. "… What happened?" he asked, at length. "I feel like I got run over by a truck."

"If you had been, the result would've been the same; you died," Ran reported drily. "Which is a bad habit of yours. Freaked out the kidnapper enough for me to sneak up on him and teach him what happens when he messes with the ravens. You were rushed to the emergency room, which probably messed up Pandora a lot, but you came out fine, obviously. Just dead to the world; they kept you a night for observation, just in case. Anyway, ends up that the butler and the daughter were fake-kidnapping the daughter because her dad was being a bit neglectful. They have everything worked out, now."

"That's good." Conan yawned, stretching out his sore muscles. Looking around, he recognized the place as Ran's room. He was sitting on a futon that had been set up beside her bed. He lifted a hand to his temple, where the wound had healed over already. "And?"

"You're staying at my house as my dad's good luck charm," Ran told him, half smiling and half smirking. "Which is probably a good thing, since now you've got a cover _and_ I've got a way to keep an eye on your immortal butt."

"Great."

"Now get up, hakase has some - _toys_ \- for you."

"Oh?" Conan sighed, rubbing his eyes, and didn't protest when Ran put the glasses onto his face and pulled him to his feet. "Sounds interesting."

"I assure you it is."

"Are we thinking the same interesting?"

"How about some defend-yourself-even-though-you're-a-midget gadgets?"

"… I'm sorry, _what?"_

* * *

_... tsudzuku ..._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Yes, I know. It was confusing. The format? Chaotic.

Well. That's because this is... an experiment, of sorts, of an idea I came up a long time ago with one of my friends, InsanityOwl, who will also be acting as my Beta Reader / Idea Bounce-Off Person. Basically I rant ideas to her and she filters the good from the bad. So thank her. A lot. Because otherwise this would be a whole lot worse that it already is.

I'm a bit annoyed, as this website's "Doc Manager" really hates it when I space out letters. So that whole "you've lost everything" line looks a crapton less legible and the formatting in general is icky. Oh, well. I'll work my way around it, if anyone's interested in more. (and I have more planned. Kami, do I have more planned. Movie storylines, anyone?)

Warning you now, updates will be sporadic or might not happen at all, for years. Just look at some of my other stories. Literally. Years.

(well, one year, but you get my point.)

Anyway - since I have and know the complete background information for this forward and backwards, I might have skipped over including vital / obvious details by accident, so if things seem particularly disconnected, feel free to let me know. Though some of the more perceptive readers, experienced in the whole DC/MK world, will know exactly what's going on, I imagine. Or at least have a basic idea.

Because, come on. Jewel. Red. Immortality. Or lack of mortality, if you're looking at the title. I even flat-out said Pandora.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, and help with motivation. Thank you for reading!

* * *

*posted: Sept. 29, 2014  
*edited: Sept. 30, 2014  
*edited: Oct. 2, 2014  
*edited: Oct. 6, 2014


	2. Two Heart Beats

_"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."  
\- Mars, from __Son of Neptune__, by Rick Riordan_

* * *

**. : WITHOUT MORTALITY : .  
**_... "shibō nakute" ..._

_a detective conan x magic kaito au fanfiction  
feat. immortal!Shinichi and immortal!Ran_

Two Heart Beats

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.

* * *

_... tsudzukeru ..._

* * *

Briefly, Conan wondered how Ran had known that the hakase had been preparing gadgets for him. Then, he dismissed it. _I'm probably better off not knowing, if only for my own sanity,_ he mused. Ran could be - _creative_ \- when she felt to.

"Agasa-hakase?" he called, stepping into the lab. "You there?"

"Ah - yes, yes I am," the inventor responded faintly from the back of the room. When Conan went over to see him, he spotted him in the middle of carefully putting a couple of different parts of something together. "Hello, Shinichi-kun, glad to see you awake." Putting down the item he was working on with a satisfied click, he added in a conspiratorial whisper, "And you haven't told anyone about your condition, right?"

"Of course not, I'm still just Conan-kun to Ran and occhan," Conan lied smoothly.

Agasa nodded in relief. "Good. Actually, Ran-kun came over yesterday, looking for you. She was really worried - you missed school for a couple days, after all."

_Ah. That's how she found out. Probably took a peek while staying in character. _"What did you tell her?"

"I said you were on some weird case, as usual, and you'd come back soon enough," Agasa told him. "I convinced her for now, but who knows how long that'll last?"

"Hopefully long enough to get the antidote for this thing," Conan sighed. _Though I can promise you she'll 'believe' that little story for as long as needed._ "Is that all you needed to talk to me about?"

"No, I've got one more thing. Give me a moment to find it… Aha!"

Curious, Conan leaned forward a bit as the professor rummaged around a box filled with mechanical gadgets and the like. Agasa straightened, triumphantly holding a rather ordinary-looking bowtie.

Taking it into his hands and looking it over, Conan blinked at the dials behind the bow, and looked to Agasa for an explanation. He received a grin before the professor explained, "It's a voice changer shaped as a bowtie. It's pretty simple - see those dials? Just turn them, and you'll be able to mimic any voice, young or old, masculine or feminine!"

"Certainly useful," Conan agreed readily, already putting it on. He spent a short minute playing with the settings and trying out various voices, including various adults he knew for fun, before he put it down. "But, hakase, do you have anything that'll make it safer or easier for me to take down criminals with?" Conan inquired. "There's no power in this body, so I can't kick things or run like I used to. And I don't think it'll do anyone good if I get caught and beaten like that again…"

A serious look flitted over Agasa's face before his grin widened. "I'm developing a solution to that right now," he promised. "I have several ideas, it's just that the physical things need several tweaks to make sure they works properly and won't break on you in the middle of a chase. They should be ready later today, though; besides, murder cases or no, it's no good to have you unarmed and defenseless in case you run into one of those men in black again, on the off chance they recognize you."

_What he says is true. _"Thanks, hakase." Conan ran his fingers over the bowtie approvingly. _The Organization is not as detached from the idea of unaging as the common civilian. _"Thank you," he repeated.

* * *

With a bored yawn, Conan rolled over and draped himself over the couch, eying the alarm clock sitting on Korgorou's desk - it had just gone off, startling both him and Kogorou out of a peaceful sleep, but now the older-looking detective was hurriedly clicking the television on.

_No doubt time for his Okino Yoko shows,_ Conan thought with a mental tsk. _If only he worked like a proper person… He's not quite as dull as he makes everyone think, but he will be if he continues wasting away his time like that._

Exasperation oozing from every pore, Conan took half a moment to confirm his suspicions by raising a brow at Kogorou cheering carelessly in front of the television before sighing and lazily rolling off the couch. He'd been lying, resting, the whole day - and it was the evening by now. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the kitchen, where Ran was preparing dinner.

"Ran-neechan," he greeted.

She looked and him, blinking. "Hey, Conan-kun, what's up? Hungry?"

"Not yet, but oji-san's being loud," Conan complained, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the said person was out of sight before quickly giving Ran a hug. "How can you stand him?" he asked in a voice more like his older self, laughing into her apron.

"You get used to it," she chuckled.

Scoffing at the idea, Conan took a step back and opened his mouth to respond, but a knock at the door cut him off. He tilted his head at it with narrowed eyes. "We aren't expecting anyone, are we?" he asked softly.

"Probably just a client," Ran soothed. "We get visitors pretty often - more so than you did, I'll bet."

"True." He didn't relax, however, staying quiet and listening sharply for any indicative sounds. There was some gruff, annoyed mumbling from Kogorou, but that seemed to be all. Somewhat mollified, Conan checked his phone when it buzzed, opening up a message. _Agasa, huh? Probably finished with those gadgets he mentioned. I'll have to drop by and pick them up sometime soon._

He was startled out of his thoughts by a sudden shout of, "_Okino Yoko_?!"

"Say what?" Conan exchanged glances with Ran before they both peeked out of the kitchen.

"What's a idol doing here?" Ran wondered, quickly and easily identifying the woman.

"Probably has a case she wants to keep private, or something," Conan pointed out. He watched Kogorou make a fool of himself - as usual - before the man suddenly up and dashed into a separate room, slamming the door. "What's he doing, anyway?"

Ran shrugged, but went over the the idol and her accompaniment. "Pardon my father," she apologized. "He's rather excitable."

"Oh, no, it's perfectly fine," Yoko replied, smiling sweetly. "It's really my fault for not scheduling an appointment beforehand - oh, um…" She gazed in surprise at Kogorou when he re-emerged, dressed in a clean suit, hair brushed back cleanly, and a rose in his hand.

"Where'd he even _get_ that?" Conan rolled his eyes. _Well, at least he'll pay attention, if anything._

"Come, Conan-kun," Ran called, beckoning him over. "She looks pretty stressed - help me get some tea out, it should help."

Obediently, the shrunken detective ambled over to the kitchen and lent a helping hand to Ran as she poured some tea and served it to their guests.

Once everyone was comfortably settled, Conan and Ran hovered behind the couch with casual interest in the case, listening to Yoko describe how she was being followed - stalked, more like - and harassed. Kogorou seemed almost traumatized on her behalf, which was somewhat amusing to watch.

Also somewhat aggravating.

When Kogorou offered to take a look at her home, Conan pulled at Ran's skirt and exclaimed childishly, "Ran-neechan, Agasa-hakase has some toys he wants me to test out! Can we go pick them up?"

"Sure," Ran agreed readily. "But after that, you're going straight to bed; growing little boys need sleep."

He pouted at her. "But I wanted to investigate with oji-san!"

"Investigate some other time. It's getting dark now, and the crows are nocturnal - they might be moving," Ran said, and Conan stilled at her words, processing their hidden meanings.

_Our eyes glow in darkness; too identifiable. And she may have gotten some new information._

"Aw, fine," Conan relented. "Let's go, let's go!"

"Go put on your shoes, then. You don't stay out too late either, 'tou-san!" Ran added as her father left with the idol. He shouted back an affirmative. Once he was gone, Conan raised an eyebrow at Ran expectantly. She paused, glancing around, before coming over to where he was tying his shoes on. "Our little raven was a bit worried about the father raven," she murmured in a hushed voice. "She saw the report that the silver crow put in. I - the mother raven told her the father was fine. Just smaller than usual. And that a different adult crow, one that likes cherries, has been poking around the father's nest."

_Cherries? _Conan pondered it for a moment, but quickly interpreted it correctly. _Ah. In English, __**'cherry'**__ sounds like a certain alcohol… __**Sherry**__. _"Is that crow part of the clean-up crew?"

"No, she makes berries."

Conan hummed thoughtfully, and resumed tying off his shoelaces. "Okay, I'm ready to go now."

She smiled at him. "Took you long enough, Conan-kun. Come on, let's drop by the hakase. And while you're busy with _him_, I'm going to clean your house up a bit."

* * *

Looking over Agasa's shoulder for the second time that day - except this time it was quite dark outside - Conan watched in mild fascination as the inventor placed some finishing touches on a pair of glasses.

It certainly appeared to be a regular piece of eyewear, but his sharp eyes picked out a few parts of the glasses that seemed a bit different. It probably had some special features to it.

"And done!" Agasa lifted the glasses to the light and inspected them, putting down the tools he'd been using to fine-tune it. Then, he set it back onto the table. "That should do it," he pronounced cheerfully. "Fixes some of the weight problem and now the frame looks exactly the same as the one you have now."

"What do they do, hakase?" Conan inquired, touching the frame cautiously.

"Press the button on the side, and you'll find out!"

Intrigued, Conan did just that, and his eyes widened in surprise when a little antenna popped up and one of the lenses shimmered, turning into a screen with a circular radar-grid on it. A flashing dot moved slowly across the lense. "Is it a tracker?"

Agasa nodded, holding up a little sticker. "I stuck it on a cat; that's what's moving on the radar right now, but this way you'll be able to find criminals or any other people no matter where they go."

"Ah." Conan took off the glasses he had on right then and put the new and improved one on. Giving the old pair to Agasa, who planned to turn them into a spare set of 'criminal tracking glasses', he added, "I don't see how that's going to help me defend myself, though. That's the main problem, isn't it?"

"Yes," Agasa agreed, rummaging through his pile of parts again. "And I do have something for that. Oh - I almost forgot to mention, those glasses also have a built-in microphone. It's screwed onto one of the ends. You can put it somewhere, and listen in by the little speakers in the glasses frame. Now, where'd I put those shoes…?"

Twisting off the little microphone, Conan turned it over a couple times in his hands, examining it closely, before reattaching it and putting the glasses back on. Idly, he wondered if there was a way to make the lenses cancel out the eerie red glow his eyes had in darkness. _I'd probably have to add something to the lense on my own, if I want that to happen. Optimally, the hakase should do it, but then I'd have to tell him about the eyes and he'd start wondering why - and Pandora isn't something I want to share._

In the meantime, Agasa continued to mutter and dig through several boxes of stuff. "I have no idea where I put it," he muttered to himself. Turning to Conan, he showed a different item in his hand. "Well, I had this, anyway - these elasticity suspenders. See this button in the middle? You press it, and it extends." He demonstrated. "Now, when you let go, it snaps back to its original size. It's got some power behind it, so now you can lift things you couldn't as a child."

"That solves half of the power problem," Conan nodded.

"Yes, though I have no clue where those shoes are, I have the solution to the other half, too."

"Shoes?" Conan echoed, gaze sharpening. Well, if it was something helpful that would aid his ability to fight and fight _back_, he wasn't going to leave today without it. With his luck - briefly remembering Ran drily inquiring as to whether or not they'd really solved that side effect since he _still_ tripped over bodies - he'd need it immediately.

Also, knowing that the Organization was everywhere and nowhere at once, and that he was supposed to be dead in their eyes, he didn't want to be _anywhere_ without some sort of defense.

"Found it!" Agasa suddenly exclaimed, holding up a pair of sneakers triumphantly. "Sitting under the table. I remember now, I needed some space in the room so I tucked them down there where they wouldn't get caught in the experiment."

"And what do they do?" Conan asked, taking the shoes in hand and looking them over. He spotted a little dial on the outside side of both shoes.

"They're power-enhancing kick shoes!" Agasa grinned. "Using electricity, they stimulate certain nerves in different parts of your foot, and artificially enhance kicking power - they really are quite powerful. Use the dial on the side to adjust how much strength you want to put into the kick."

"Ah," Conan murmured, looking them over with a small smirk. "Yeah, they'll do perfectly." _With these, I could probably kick even harder than before. Plus nobody will ever expect otherwise; they look completely normal. Surprise is a wonderful advantage._

"One last thing, Shinichi-kun," Agasa continued. "Your watch."

He froze. Blue eyes wide, the slight beginnings of panic coiling in his stomach. Waves of cold echoing through his blood. Red shimmered, just beneath the surface. _No, no! Calm down, calm down, he doesn't know, there's no way he could know… _"What of it?" he asked warily, habitually touching the wristwatch with his hand.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Agasa elaborated, "I was thinking that I could switch it with a more purposeful and fitting one. You can't deny that the one you have now is practically falling off your wrist. I've devised a way to make a watch that shoots tranquilizer darts, and maybe a double as a flashlight, too. Though that part will have to wait a bit, I haven't made it energy-efficient enough for use yet."

_Calm. Calm. He doesn't know. _The cold faded away, panic vanishing like it had never been. Conan breathed a sigh of relief. _Guess I'm more than just a little paranoid if such a little thing can set me off. All he did was talk about the watch._ "Do you have a prototype ready for use?" he asked, brushing away his thoughts.

"Yes - here." The inventor pulled out a small box, opening it to reveal a simple silver watch. "The face can come up and act as crosshairs for precision aiming, which is important, since it only has one shot. There's no room for any more."

"Thanks a lot, hakase." Accepting the gift, Conan looked up as the bell rang, signifying that Ran was here to pick him up. "These little things will really help me out."

"It's no problem, and you'd better get going." Agasa smiled at him. "Stay safe, Shinichi-kun. And don't forget to be careful."

"I will. You've helped me a lot in that aspect," he returned softly as he padded over to the entrance. Opening the door, he offered Ran a childish greeting before quickly putting his new shoes on. The rest of his gadgets were also safely equipped on his person, too.

"Did you have a good time, Conan-kun?" Ran asked, and he nodded. "Then what do you say?"

"Thanks, hakase!" he chirped, waving to Agasa as he scurried out the door. "See you soon!"

* * *

"A case, huh?" Conan mused, glancing outside. It was really dark out, and about an hour past his bedtime. "So occhan and Okino Yoko are wrapped up in a murder?"

"Yeah. They might not be back until much later." Ran watched on curiously as the little detective went around closing the window shutters and locking the door. "What are you doing?"

"I've got a new watch from Agasa," Conan said, showing the wristwatch on his other hand. "It's more useful than the older one, so I'm moving the piece. Luckily, there's a backside that can come off."

"Ah."

Setting both watches onto the table, Conan turned his new one over so he was looking at the back of its face, the part that was usually pressed against his skin. Carefully, he pried the cover off. It took a bit of wiggling, and a quick run to fetch a screw, but eventually came free with a gentle _click._

"There we go," he murmured. Ran watched silently as he took the battery out of Agasa's gift and set it to the side. _And now, for the gem…_

He picked off the back cover of his old watch, and removed a small black item from its interior, where the battery was supposed to be. At first glance, it looked like a piece of obsidian that broke off from a larger chunk - and unless it was held under the moonlight, no one would be the wiser. Unless they used common sense and wondered why a rock would somehow act as a working battery for a watch… But, in general, the two of them tried not to think about that. There were imperfections in every method, and this was the safest.

Hastily - knowing that every moment was another moment of possible exposure - Conan stuck the little gem into his new watch where the battery once was and replaced the cover, securing it tightly with the screw. The hands on the face stayed still for a moment before shuddering back to life and resuming their motion.

"What're you going to do with the old one?" Ran asked quietly.

Giving it an appraising look, Conan said, "If I'm not wearing it, the battery socket in the back is too suspicious to anyone who might just pry it off. Keeping it isn't a good choice either; why would it even be there if it's not being used and yet in near-perfect condition? So. Do you have a hammer?"

A couple minutes later, the old watch was reduced to a bunch of deformed pieces and parts, and tossed into three different trash cans.

Conan put the new watch back on, and suddenly stopped, eyes narrowed. _Right. I forgot to take this into account._ "Ran."

"Hm? Oh. It's too small to cover the tear, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Make-up?"

"Please."

Soon, the inky black moon - phase matching the moon outside, as always - with the teardrop beneath it and the nine stars encircling his wrist were all obscured by a generous application of skin-colored make-up.

"Another reason not to go out under the moon," Ran told him. "When it turns red, it'll glow right through that."

"That," Conan sighed, "is why I prefer just covering it with a solid item, like a watch."

Ran rolled her eyes, moving to return the room to its original state as a completely unlocked, unshuttered area, while Conan secured the watch on his wrist, clicking its latch closed. "I've dealt with it through all these years this way; you can deal for a few."

"Just a few?" He eyed her critically. "Remember, we don't know what this poison does to Pandora."

She sighed, eyes darkening. "… Yeah, I know."

The phone rang.

* * *

Conan heaved a tired little groan, sinking down in the chair. The voice-changing bowtie had been put through one test today, and had passed; it successfully changed Conan's voice into Shinichi's dad's.

Fortunately. Because, as it seemed, the case that had the oji-san held up was more complex than it appeared - a suicide made to look like a murder - so Megure-keibu had called Ran and asked her if she could contact Shinichi to solve it. She'd hesitated, but eventually handed the phone over to Conan, who quickly adjusted the bowtie to sound like his dad, just in case one of the Organization was there.

He made up some crap excuse about being on the phone with Ran and speaking through the phone into the other phone, which partially explained the scratchiness as Conan fiddled with the bow to get the voice exactly right.

In the end, he added in a request not to be mentioned in the report, and to say that oji-san had solved it, instead. Then he handed the phone back to Ran, who received a lot of thanks and responded that it was just sheer luck, before hanging up. Not a second passed before Conan suddenly yawned, slumping in the chair.

Laughing a little, Ran went over to the exhausted child and scooped him up into her arms. "Was that really so terrible?" she inquired.

"Yes," he said, words muffled into her shoulder. "It was so _draining._"

"Then what you need is some sleep." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "And tomorrow we'll get Conan-kun a phone, since it'll be weird if Conan-kun picks up Shinichi's call, alright?"

"Talk about tomorrow, tomorrow," he said into her sweater. Curling up in her arms, he let out a breathy sigh of content. "Hmm…"

"Alright, bedtime for you." Ran turned off the lights and locked the door before heading upstairs to the bedrooms. "We almost forgot, but you still need the same amount of sleep a normal kid would need."

_Oh, yeah. Stupid little-kid endurance, huh?_

He opened a bleary eye to peer up at her when she settled him on her bed, letting him go. "Sleep with me?" he asked childishly while she took his glasses off and put them on a nearby table. "Please? It's cold…"

"Why do you think you're on my bed, not the futon?" Ran asked in amusement, poking his nose. "I just need change. Give me a moment."

"Won't look," Conan yawned sleepily in assurance. "Closed m' eyes." _So tired…_

"I hardly think you can open them even if you wanted to, right now," Ran noted while she changed into her sleepwear.

No response, except for even breaths.

Ran climbed into bed, tucking in the sleeping, shrunken detective beside her, and smiled. She reached out to run her hands through his hair. In response, he murmured something intelligible and snuggled up to her side adorably.

"Good night, _Shinki._"

* * *

The next day found Conan tiredly trudging back to the Mouri Detective Agency. He'd spent the whole day at _school._ And no, it wasn't just any school, it was _elementary _school. First grade. Befitting of his size, but not of his intellect.

He'd gone through that sort of thing countless times prior, having to keep up with appearances just as he had to now. Every now and then he managed to squeeze out of it by claiming homeschooling, but this wasn't an area in which such a thing was common.

And anything that stood out, caught the attention of the crows.

Already, his claim to be from America - in order to justify his relatively strange name - could be too much.

Thus, he resigned himself to yet another endless game of pretend.

He already knew how he was going to do. Top of the class, but not exceedingly so. Slightly fluctuating grades, sometimes dipping into fifth in the class, sometimes rising to second. Test grades are always imperfect, but the better homework and classwork and other nonessential grades would balance it out.

It was even more boring than it sounded, and Conan caught himself writing down more elaborate answers than appropriate at several intervals, forcing him to erase and rewrite them. Additionally, a few of the staff were still there from the first time he was an elementary student, so he had to make even more effort to come across as the opposite of Shinichi - relatively smart, but shy and never as outspoken as Shinichi was.

Really, the highlight of the day was the realization that, hey, Agasa-hakase had _no sense of moderation._

Using his kick shoes at the medium setting, Conan managed to make a soccer ball blast straight through a goal and its netting without the smallest shred of resistance. Straight. Through.

After being thoroughly freaked out by that, the walk back to Ran's home was an amusing experience, since Kogorou was an absolutely _terrible_ tail.

Still chuckling at the memory of the detective knocking over a trashcan and trying to appear casual about it, Conan reached up to open the door and let himself in.

"I'm back," he announced, shutting the door behind him. "Ran-neechan?"

"Over here," she responded, and he went over to the source of her voice. Upon seeing the oji-san cackling over the money he received from the tailing job, Conan rolled his eyes. Kogorou had gotten to the agency before Conan, since the smaller detective had taken a detour to drop by his own home in order to adjust the settings; as nobody currently lived there, there was no need for regular air conditioning and the like.

Kogorou saw Conan rolling his eyes and smacked him upside the head in annoyed retaliation. "Hey, when are this brat's parents going to be out of the hospital anyway?" he grumbled. "When's he getting picked up?"

_Not 'till it's time for Edogawa Conan to disappear,_ Conan thought as he ducked away from Kogorou's next 'love tap' and scampered over to Ran's side, who explained the lie that Agasa had apparently fabricated: Conan's parents were out of the hospital, but some very important issues demanded that they return to the States. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough warning to bring Conan with them, so they left him here.

"What, so he's going to stay here as long as he likes?" Kogorou demanded.

Ran smiled innocently, indiscreetly cracking her knuckles. "Problem?"

"Er - no, not at all," Kogorou stammered, averting his gaze in fear. Conan bit back a snort as the oji-san's eyes skittered towards him. _Like I said, she's one scary lady… _"As long as _you_ take care of him."

"Fine by me," Ran practically sang.

Kogorou blinked, then leaned closer to Conan. "Hey, your face looks familiar…"

_Crap. _"Ah, uh, um," Conan stuttered, scrambling for an excuse. "Er-"

He was saved from a rushed explanation when Kogorou whipped around to the television and stared at incredulously, grabbing the sides of the monitor. "What was that?!"

Conan breathed a sigh of relief - saved by the television. Then, he gathered himself, just in time to hear Kogorou exclaim that the dead was the very same person he'd been tailing for the past three days.

Eyes sharpening with focus, Conan quickly switched to an attentive - and, though he would never admit it, _excited_ \- state of mind.

* * *

_Damn, that _hurt_._

Wincing, Conan pushed himself back onto his feet. He glared at the culprit, who was busy ranting about how his company was ruined and how he had so much pressure, needed the money, etc.

_I knew it was a bad idea to take him on alone, but there was no other choice… Besides, I'm better equipped, now. Time to fix this guy's head for good!_

Winces turning into a smirk, Conan crouched and turned the dial on his shoes, feeling it hum to life around his foot. He spotted the tire he'd been knocked into just moments beforehand and lunged towards it. With a determined shout, he poised himself to strike and kicked the tire as hard as possible.

It snapped through the air too fast to react to, and slammed into the culprit ruthlessly. Conan set his foot back down and looked over his work. After a moment, he nodded to himself. "That'll do."

Then, he placed the tape on the man's back, and walked away like nothing had happened.

* * *

Conan had come up with a new way of solving things, and it made everything _so. Much. Easier._ Even if Ran looked at him disapprovingly every time he did it.

Instead of leading the police and Kogorou around by spoon-feeding them the evidence piece by piece and agonizingly waiting for them to piece everything together and hoping they'd see the flaws in Kogorou's detection quickly, he simply used the tranquilizer dart on the oji-san, ducked behind him, and used his bowtie to mimic Kogorou's voice as he solved the cases instead.

Ran had given him five seconds to explain himself, after they returned to the agency.

"I had a tranquilizer dart and it was handy" didn't cut it, apparently, so she chased him around the room for an hour, threatening death by tickling (betrayed by his kiddy body again, _dammit_). But she knew it was more efficient, so she let him off the hook - as long as he tried to guide them without the tranq beforehand.

"Besides," he offered sheepishly between breathless gasps of laughter, "occhan gets recognition for it, which brings in more money for you. I can't just completely freeload off you guys."

In the end, she accepted that as his way of 'giving back', and forgave him.

That was a short while ago, though. Currently, thanks to said increase in recognition, another client came in. She was a young girl, reduced to tears over her father's disappearance, and begged Kogorou to help her out. Of course, he couldn't say no to her.

_Who could?_ Conan watched the girl leave the agency in slightly brighter spirits. He'd stuck a tracker onto her wristwatch on a sudden impulse (with no little dose of paranoia and a sixth sense of something _wrong_), which he told himself was just in case someone was targeting both the girl and her father.

In the days that followed, though, Kogorou was stuck with dead ends all over the place - the man he was searching for apparently was not the social butterfly.

Conan distractedly eyed the television, which was showing a horse race. _He's pretty motivated for this case if he's missing the track for it… Wait a moment._

"Goukaiteiou?" he echoed the announcer, frowning. _Weren't his pets named Kai, Tei, Gou, and Ou? And rearranged, that spells out - _"Gokaiteiou!"

He hopped up, elated, but quickly sat back down again. _No, that's a tenuous relationship at best. Probably not actually referring to that._

Ran had other ideas, though, having overheard his little revelation. "Otousan, he must be a horseracing fan; he named all of his cats after that one racehorse!"

"Ah - no, wait," Conan protested, but Ran shushed him.

"What's the harm?" she asked. "And the both of you need a break from investigating this."

* * *

_I can't believe that actually worked._ Conan leaned back into the couch, sulking slightly at the smug glanced Ran kept throwing at him. They'd found the father all right, and tracked him to his house. The young lady was called, so she'd be here in a few minutes.

When the door slammed open, Conan jerked and revised his previous thought to _now_, not in a few minutes_._

Kogorou and the lady - Masami, Conan recalled - exchanged words for a bit, but Conan was suddenly distracted on another little notice.

"Ran-neechan," he said, quietly. He stayed in character, though, because if his suspicions were correct, he'd need to take all precautions. "Remember what the little bloody raven told the mommy and daddy raven about turning into other birds?"

She sucked in a quick breath, and he knew that she did.

His eyes narrowed. "There's another bird among the pigeons."

* * *

It wasn't quite a surprise when Ran and Conan, worried, dragged Kogorou along to look back at the Masami and her father and discovered that he was dead and his supposed daughter was missing.

While Kogorou grilled Inspector Megure for details, Ran and Conan held a hushed conversation themselves.

"Crows?" Conan suggested. "Not as good as our painted raven, but it was good for a hurried job, considering how fast she appeared when we called."

"She may have given tips to this bird," Ran said slowly. "Or it could be a simple case of revenge, completely unrelated to the crows."

"May be," Conan sighed in agreement. "If only we had a way to tra - oh. Track. Tracking glasses. Wow, I'm slow today."

Raising an eyebrow, Ran looked on in amusement as he turned on his tracking glasses. _Time to put these to the test. _"Keep the oji-san busy," he told her. "I'm going to check this out."

"Be safe."

Nodding, Conan turned and ran in the direction the radar indicated.

After taking a while to dash through hordes of pedestrians for a kilometer to approach the blinking dot, Conan finally almost arrived at his destination.

"Should be just around this corner," he murmured. He looked up, easily spotting a pachinko building. _In here? What would she be doing in here?_

A light flashed across the lense, warning of low battery. _Alright, I'll have to make this fast._

He dashed in, and almost immediately ran into a large man. "Sorry!" he yelped, hopping out of the way. He heard a small grumble of complaint, but dismissed it. Already, the glasses were shutting off, out of power - and it was far too risky to switch out the not-quite-but-working battery in his watch.

Looking around frantically, Conan continued his search for a grand total of seven minutes before he was thrown out again.

Irked, Conan growled under his breath, but went back to Ran.

This girl definitely wasn't what she seemed.

By overt appearances, she'd never be one to enter a panchinko building. So she was definitely deceiving them, but why?

* * *

Conan stopped by the hakase's lab on his way back to get the glasses recharged, and while it did so, Agasa had spared him some information about the one billion yen robbery case. It was a large robbery that hadn't really been resolved yet, and a guard had been shot and killed in the scuffle.

Through this point, as well as a cleverly included Holmes quote from Agasa, that led to Conan's decision to bring at least Ran along with him. The glasses took a while to charge, so Conan spent his time looking into possible places the lady could be living.

As soon as the charging was finished, Conan bid the inventor goodbye and rushed out the door to the Mouri Detective Agency.

When he arrived, though, it was to see both Ran and Kogorou confronting a suspicious-looking, stocky man in sunglasses, who was claiming to be a detective. "I was told to look for Hirota-san by this man," he said, showing them a picture. Conan went over to Ran and poked her to get her attention. She blink at him, then wordlessly lifted him so he could get a clear view of the image.

"Wait, isn't that…" Conan trailed off. _That doesn't make sense. Why would - wait, wasn't I practically on the dot what the radar ran out of battery? And this man - this person I ran into at the pachinko place - he must have the watch with the transmitter on it! For whatever reason, it definitely can't be good._ And before Kogorou could invite (see: drag) the other man inside for a detective-y discussion, Conan shouted out loud, "Ne, ne, Ran-neechan, I know where this guy lives! He's got Masami-san's watch, too!"

Thankfully, as planned, Kogorou jumped to a conclusion that worked in their favor. "He must've attacked her after attacking her father!" he declared. "It makes sense, Megure-keibu said it was a giant man who must've strangled him, he must be after Masami-san as well!

_I doubt that, since she seems pretty skilled, but hey, whatever works for him._ "Come on!" Conan pulled Kogorou over to a taxi and hopped in, Ran at his heels.

He snapped out directions to the driver as they drove through the streets, keeping an eye on the radar in his tracking glasses.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a large hotel. Scrambling out, Kogorou quickly ran over to the front desk, pulling out the picture he had snagged from the other detective. "Hey, which room is this man in?"

The receptionist blinked, but answered, "Oh, he's in room 802, I believe."

Conan was already headed off to the elevator, jabbing the button with a bit of prejudice. _We have to hurry, if what I'm thinking is right, he'll be dead soon enough!_

When the elevator finally 'ding'ed pleasantly, and the doors opened, Conan crashed head-first into a cart full of suitcases, causing them to fall everywhere.

"I'm sorry!" he burst out, quickly moving to help put them back up. All was set right again within a minute, and the three of them rode up the elevator to the eighth floor and barged into room 802.

_Aaand of course he's dead._ Conan fisted his hands, glancing around the room. Aside from the body, which Kogorou quickly classified as a case of suicide by cyanide, there were a lot of empty cases scattered around… Which confirmed his previous suspicions. _So now all that's left to do is figure out where - wait, that girl we ran into - that must've been her!_

"Occhan, you can take it from here - Ran-neechan, come on, I think I know who did it!"

* * *

With some quick thinking and rapid-fire acts of desperation on Ran's part, she and Conan managed to cut through the taxi line and chase after Masami's taxi without too many delays. Once their target got off of her taxi, they did the same, at a safe distance.

After the guy drove off, bewildered, Conan and Ran crept silently down the long line of crates at a quick pace, careful not to make a sound but trying to move as fast as possible, too.

There was a brief buzz - Ran's phone - and she paused to look at the text she'd just received. Conan continued to progress, however, quickly moving out of the older-looking teen's sight as he searched.

_Come on, come on, she has to be here somewhere…_

Conan dashed past another long line of crates - and skidded to a halt, because he'd caught the sight of someone out of the corner of his eye.

It was Masami all right, and she looked slightly frightened for some reason. He made to move towards her, but a sudden, quiet popping noise cracked through the air.

A silenced gun.

Conan flinched instinctively, habit forcing him to tuck and roll before coming back up.

And right before his eyes, Masami froze, fell to her knees, and slumped over to the side weightlessly.

He recovered and stopped at her side, crouching beside her. "Masami-san!"

She moaned weakly. Her hands were already stained with the blood pouring from the bullet wound in her side. A quick glance around revealed the gun responsible to be sitting on the ground a short ways away.

Conan gritted his teeth and helped put pressure on the wound, hoping to lessen the blood flow by at least a little. At this point, Ran had caught up.

"Painted raven contacted me," she said to Conan immediately, kneeling at Masami's side. She started to dial for an ambulance. "This bird's a crow."

"I don't care she's a crow," Conan hissed, frantic. "She's _dying._"

"I know."

Silence. Then, "You know about us?" Masami asked, voice trembling. "Large organization, shrouded in secrecy, everyone wears black, _crows_." Both listeners nodded. "W-who're you?" she whispered. "H-how…?"

"Edo - no." Conan weighed his choices, then said, "Kudo Shinichi. Pandora's cursed."

Ran looked at him, but followed suit. "Mouri Ran. Pandora's cursed." She looked to the side, then straightened and went a short ways away, probably to guide the ambulance this way.

Conan let out a harsh breath. "We have someone on the inside. A raven, bathed in blood until she appears as a crow does."

"Pandora…" Masami gave a wheezing cough, then grasped at Conan's hand, moving it away from her wound. "F-fine. Promise… Promise me, help me. The billion yen - hotel, front desk… Don't let them use it… Please…"

"I'll try everything in my power to stop them," Conan swore. "Always have, always will. On my pride and power as a detective."

"I'm sorry…" Masami choked on her tears, grip on Conan's wrist loosening. "I beg you, little detective…"

Beat. Beat.

And then she was gone.

* * *

_... tsudzuku ..._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

So, making a bit more sense? I did manage to get this up sooner than I expected to, partially because I suddenly realize how much I wanted to get to the original plot. Apologies, but since this story begins at the very beginning, I'm going to have to work my way through introducing other characters slowly. Not too slowly, mind you, and I'll be skimming over unimportant cases. As well as parts of cases that are only important because of the characters, like I did in this chapter. This'll be the most confusing part, I think. Hopefully all of the recap will be done within five chapters, though, so sit tight.

Another 7,000 word chapter, including this AN, though the first one was a bit longer.

So, who can guess what the bird things mean? And who the raven coated in blood is?

* * *

*posted: Oct. 6, 2014


	3. Three And More

_"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."  
\- Mars, from __Son of Neptune__, by Rick Riordan_

* * *

**. : WITHOUT MORTALITY : .  
**_... "shibō nakute" ..._

_a detective conan x magic kaito au fanfiction  
feat. immortal!Shinichi and immortal!Ran_

Three And More

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.

* * *

_... _tsudzukeru_ ..._

* * *

Fingerprint tests claimed she'd shot and killed herself. Suicide.

Conan had expected nothing less.

Eyes narrowed it fierce concentration, Conan twirled his pencil around his fingers, wordlessly pondering the little crow's death. Quiet messages from their hidden raven slowly filled them in over the course of the week, small texts or emails, heavily encoded with inside references.

_Baby crow. Sister, an adult. Cherries. Berries. _For the millionth time since her death, Conan mentally touched the pieces of information together. And then broke it apart again, because it was information, only information. Nothing to act on, nothing to _do_. _For cherries, little crow served. For freedom. Now, that adult crow wants to leave the crow's nest, for her sister had breathed her last. But bound wings will fail her. The silver crow will throw her into the abyss, because an unwilling crow is useless._

At least they did manage to retrieve the money, before the crows could take it away. It was the least Conan could do for Masami - which probably wasn't even her real name.

_What shall we do about this crow's sister, trying to fly free?_

_Nothing, _the cold reply hissed from the hidden raven's beak. _If she flies in the wrong direction, you will be dragged down with her._

_And if she makes for the right direction?_

Hesitation. Tentatively whispered words. _I cannot go against orders. But if she is deemed worth your protection, then I… Only if she stays true to direction. Should she slip, I will cut her from you. You will not fall because she does. But she is still here. We will see if she has the courage to fly -_

"Hey, Conan-kun!"

Startled out of his thoughts, Conan jackknifed upright and spun around, searching for danger.

He was met with the curious gazes of two kids. Calming down and finding his voice, he asked, "Yeah?"

The little girl beamed at him happily. "We're going ghost-busting, want to come?"

_Ghost-busting? _Conan blinked, gaze softening. The bulkier little boy behind her - calling her Ayumi - complained about how Conan wouldn't be able to do anything even if he was brought along. _Such carefree little pigeons… I wonder if any crows started out like this? Innocent, free of all things, before their intelligence and ambitions were chained by blood, to blood?_

Shaking himself free of those thoughts, he asked, "Ghosts where?"

"Yonchoume!" Ayumi chirped. She proceeded to describe the house in all its creepiness, but Conan's mind went back to a case he'd heard about… It was still unresolved, if he remembered correctly.

He jumped again when Ayumi suddenly shrieked at the top of her lungs. A few moments later, she stopped and looked at him expectantly. "Well?" she asked excitedly.

"That's just a made up story," another boy, freckled and much thinner than the other, interrupted before Conan could respond. "There's no way ghosts exist."

"Mitsuhiko-kun…" Ayumi trailed off, a little downhearted.

The other boy scowled and stomped up to him. "Are you saying that Ayumi's lying?"

"Ah - no," MItsuhiko quickly said, putting up his hands placatingly. "It's just-"

"Then you're coming with us, and then you can prove that there aren't any ghosts in there!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Yeah, and we ain't inviting you, you _have to_ come with us!"

Meanwhile, Ayumi turned to Conan with tears in her eyes. "You believe me, right?"

Instead of responding right away, he remained silent for a short moment. Then, he said slowly, "Ayumi-chan, whether I believe you or not, _someone_ or _something_ is causing things to happen. Whether or not it's a ghost remains to be seen."

She sniffled, but nodded.

"Great!" the larger of the two boys shouted. "After school tomorrow, we'll begin our assault on the mansion!"

* * *

That investigation, Conan recalled, had gone pretty badly. They'd tripped across the unresolved case, which led to Genta and Mitsuhiko getting knocked out and thrown onto the lawn, but Conan managed to protect and guide Ayumi until they came across the wife and imprisoned son. He lay out the series of events with a deduction, briefly interrupted by a knife scare, and convinced the wife that locking up her son to save him from the crime was, in fact, a terrible idea.

_At least, with both mother and son confessing to the police, that case has finally been closed. _Conan sighed, picking at the last remnants of his lunch, which was provided by the bullet train's services. _But not before Ran laughed at me _forever_ for going on a ghost-busting adventure, of all things. And to think those kids were targeting _my_ house next… _

Not to mention that after that, he'd tripped over three more cases. Almost day-after-day. It had taken some tiring maneuvers, but Conan managed to trick the adults into figuring out one of the cases by themselves. However, he was forced to resort to tranquilizing Kogorou for the other two.

Idly listening as Ran berated her father for trying to clean himself up on the go, Conan stretched in his seat, setting the finished lunch on his lap to the side. Kogorou cast him a look and turned his complaints to his presence and the lack of contact from his parents.

_Speaking of whom_, Conan thought, _I wonder if they've even noticed… No, they must have. They'll probably contact me later. I know that Yusaku, at least, vaguely knows that something unsavory is going on._

Soon, he grew bored of watching Ran and Kogorou talk back and forth. Instead, he turned his gaze to the side and began to deduce random facts from nearby passengers. Not only was it good practice - not that he needed it, with his habit of running into cases like a blind deer into cars - but it also gave him some early information in case he did just that.

The door separating the different carriages opened, Conan noticed absentmindedly. He turned to look at whoever was entering - challenging himself to deduce who the person was before they sat down - but _black_ snapped at the edge of his vision, and he froze. _Oh, no… _

He plopped back into his seat and grabbed Ran's arm. "Ne, ne, Ran-neechan," he chirped - brightly, but quietly. Pointing out the window at a flock, he continued, "Look - birds! D'you think they're crows?"

"Brat." Kogorou rolled his eyes. "Do they _look_ that color to you?"

Neither raven was listening, though. Ran stared into his eyes, and whispered, "Where?"

"Two seats back, other side of the aisle," Conan murmured, low enough that nobody else could hear him. "Don't look."

"I'm not stupid," she responded drily. Her fists were clenched. "What now?"

"Bugs fly _everywhere_, especially in the summer," he responded with forced lightness.

Out of the corner of his eye, Conan watched the two crows carefully as he continued rattling off happily to his 'nee-chan'. He identified them as the same two who'd poisoned him - Gin and Vodka, he recalled. The raven had told him about this pair.

_They work together because Vodka, by himself, is simple,_ she'd scoffed. And then her eyes had sharpened. _On the other hand, Gin is dangerous. He doesn't trust me, which is smart, but annoying._

Pulling the kiddy-act around himself tighter, cloaking and burying all traces of anyone but Edogawa Conan, the shrunken detective prattled on, hoping against hope that they'd leave soon, but return again, later.

A few minutes later, Gin check his watch and gestured to Vodka. They stood. And started moving, coming towards Conan and Ran's seats.

_Don't look, don't look, _Conan chanted to himself, gluing his gaze to Ran's face. She did the same, a forced smile plastered on, refusing to flick her eyes over to the crows. _Don't react - don't even _think -

They passed them without hesitation.

Conan held his breath until they exited the carriage. Until he could no longer hear the sounds of their steps over the rushing, freezing cold that slithered to his heart. Then, and only then, did he relax.

_Breathe. Now, go. _He casually pulled his glasses off and removed the little mic from its hidden area. After turning it on, he popped some bubblegum into his mouth - he'd gotten it from the hakase, but it was actually normal gum and not some gadget.

It worked _with_ a gadget, though. Chewing it thoroughly, Conan stood up and told Kogorou that he needed to use the bathroom. When he received a gruff okay, he went off to do as he claimed.

Or so it seemed. After Conan locked the door behind him, he took the gum out and gave it a quick rise in the sink, hoping the running water would wash away the majority of the saliva. Blood type could be determined from any traces, after all, although he wasn't sure how much he managed to remove.

That done, he took the earpiece and wrapped it in the sticky gum, smoothing out any remaining fingerprints as he did so.

Finished with his preparations, Conan washed his hands quickly before exiting the bathroom. On the way back, he removed his glasses and wiped the lenses clean with a handkerchief.

He stopped by the seat where Gin and Vodka had been sitting, pretending to drop his glasses. Then, when he crouched to pick it up, he pressed the gum on the underside of the seat discreetly before he straightened, hopping merrily the rest of the way to Ran.

Plopping back onto his seat and resuming his endless chatter, he settled down just in time - Gin and Vodka returned, with a large suitcase - they probably switched the black attache case from before for that one.

Conan touched the left end of the glasses - the earphone part - to turn it on, and his rapid-fire child-speak lessened as he listened intently, gaze wandering to the window outside.

"_Whew, I can finally take a smoke."_ Conan tensed as one man's voice reverberated in his ear, softly enough that nobody else would even hear a whisper, but it sounded loud and clear to him. _"Pretty smooth transaction, right, aniki?"_

"_Shh! You're too loud, Vodka!"_ the other man scolded. If the first speaker was Vodka, then that meant that the other was…

"_Don't worry, no one's listening. Still careful as always, aren't you, Gin?"_

_As always,_ Conan mused, _she's completely accurate. Gin and Vodka. Brain and skill, brawn and muscle._

"_Well, 400 million just for returning one little case - what was in that thing?"_ Vodka wondered.

There was the _click_ of a lighter. _"Information on gold,"_ Gin responded. _"And if used well, the 400 million paid to us for delivering it is nothing in comparison."_

"_I see… No wonder they were so excited, then." _

"_Yes, no doubt they're sitting back at their seat, having a great time, and checking out their last view."_

Conan held his breath. _"Their… last view?"_

"_The organization has no more use for them. So the case does not have information, but rather explosives. If bumped hard enough, it'll set off a bomb."_

"_Yeah, but what if they drop it or something?"_

"_It contains valuable information, or so our client believes. They won't drop it. Besides, it'll go off at around 3:10 anyway."_

"_It's a time bomb?"_

"_No. Actually, they'll set it off themselves, unwittingly. Ten seconds later… first the case, then their body, then the train - everything will be blown to smithereens within moments!"_

Clenching his teeth, Conan forced his eyes to stay glued to the window, looking outside. _Don't react, don't react. Now that I know about it, I can change it. Don't. React._

The intercom announced the stop for Nagoya. Gin and Vodka took the suitcase up and left swiftly, without a second look back.

Conan glanced at his watch, and hissed out a curse. He glanced at Kogorou - the ojisan had fallen asleep, thankfully. Leaning over to Ran, who looked on worriedly, he whispered, "Forty minutes. Bomb."

She tensed, and gave a stiff nod. "Go."

Conan slipped out of his seat and rushed down the aisle. _I have to find their client and that black case before everyone gets caught in the blast - where could it be? I can't just ask the attendants to help, they'd never believe me. And I can't send Ran either, since if They catch wind of her being the one to prevent the explosion, she'll start to stick out just like Kudo Shinichi did and become a target. But if I don't find it in time, so many people will die… _

And that was one thing he wouldn't allow.

_Ten minutes,_ he decided. _If it's down to ten minutes and I can't do it by myself, I'll get Ran to help me._

So, alone for now, he went up to a mapped-out diagram of the different cars, each labeled with their respective features and characteristics, along with the color and number. The one he was looking for, he knew, was one of the non-smoking cars. That was an easy enough deduction for Conan, considering Vodka's statement of, _"Whew, I can finally take a smoke."_ But there were eight such cars, and he doubted he had enough time to thoroughly check each of them before someone noticed he was up to something.

Looking carefully at the diagram again, Conan narrowed his eyes in thought, turning over the pieces of information he'd overheard.

_Gin said something about checking out the view… Which means it must be one of the three green cars, since they're the only ones with a second floor and therefore high enough to actually see the scenery. And the only one of those that's a non-smoking car is… There! _

Destination decided, Conan whipped around and dashed over to the second level of car number seven.

* * *

There were four people with a black attache case in that area.

A salaryman who was using the case as a surface for his computer, a career woman with the case on the window seat, a hefty old man hugging his case, and a _yakuza_ with his case in the overhead. All were suspicious in some way or another, so Conan had resigned himself to check them out one by one.

Several minutes later, he edged out of the car and waited just outside its door, thinking. His obnoxious child act was a bit too annoying, and he'd quickly left before anything escalated - but now he knew for sure that the _yakuza_ was not the one with the bomb…

Amusement bubbled up as he recalled tricking the guy to bring it down, having a brief scare when it slipped out of his hands to hit the floor, too far to catch it, only to end up rolling his eyes when it burst open to reveal embarrassing undergarments and the like.

He glanced at his watch - and laughter chilled to fear.

_Twelve minutes. Where did all that time go?_ Conan wondered incredulously. _Manipulating those people took longer than I thought, then. Shit. It was the jewel - it slows our perception of time, Ran was always better at adjusting to it than I was… _Gritting his teeth, he turned away from car seven and walked quickly towards his original seat. _Well, it's almost ten minutes now, I'll have to ask Ran to convince the -_

"I can't believe I missed the sea," a little girl whined as she passed Conan.

"You were asleep, Vuiki-chan," the father responded, putting a hand on her head as he guided her to the restroom. "Besides, we were sitting on the mountain side, we wouldn't have been able to see it anyway."

Conan stopped mid-step.

_Mountain… side? Come to think of it, didn't that career lady talk about Mt. Fuji? But how could she have seen it? She was definitely sitting on the side facing the ocean… _His eyes widened. _Of course, wherever the transaction took place! And she claimed not to have left her seat sans once to use the bathroom, and the only reason she would've lied about that is if she was covering up something - like an illegal transaction!_

Mind made up, he whirled around, about to charge back to that green car. However, he automatically paused in his tracks when the intercom beeped and came on. _"Attention. All passengers who would like to use their cell phones, please step outside so as to not disturb other customers. Thank you."_

_That's it!_ Conan lunged forward, looking for the deck frantically. _If they gave her a number to call, but it was actually linked to the explosive, not a phone, then she'd be unwittingly inducing her own death!_

He skidded around a corner and found what he was looking for - the lady on the phone, the case at her feet.

On it, little digital numbers blinked down from **0:08** to **0:07**.

Kneeling, he snapped, "Get out of the way!" while he turned up the dial on his sneakers.

Shimmering, the shoe glowed briefly and sparked to life beneath his fingers. He ran forward, aiming for the case with the timer - **0:05**, it said. Then, **0:04**.

He slammed his foot into it, the case crunching under the impact, as it read **0:03**.

At **0:02**, it sailed out the window with a loud shattering sound.

**0:01** and **0:00** passed in midair.

_Boom,_ Conan thought, relieved. In the distance, the case exploded in a huge pulse of energy - safely away from the train. He fell onto the ground and heaved a deep breath. "That," he pronounced, "was too close."

The career lady was still gaping - though whether it was from his actions or from the case's explosion, Conan wasn't quite sure, and he wasn't pressed to figure it out. "W-who _are_ you?" she stammered.

"Edogawa Conan," he responded, tilting his head back to look at her. "_Tantei sa._ Oh, hi, Ran-neechan!"

Ran was giving him a certain look, picking him up off the ground. "You're okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he assured. Then, as she carried him away, he glanced back at the woman and added chirpily, "I'm just a grade school student, though!"

Her incredulous expression was _so worth it._

* * *

In the end, as expected, police came and interrogated everyone, especially the lady. She, however, didn't know much about the Organization at all - which was good, Conan decided, because then they wouldn't think her worth killing. Maybe.

(A few months later, she mysteriously committed suicide for reasons unknown, the raven in the crow's nest whispered to them. _Quiet affair. She still felt guilty, etcetera, etcetera. Case closed._ They could still hear the mocking laughter in her tone.)

Currently, though, he was hovering at Ran's side while the other kids - Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko, those three classmates from that haunted house case - ran to get their reward for solving a code. Which Conan had actually solved for them, but it wasn't like he was interested in the prize of a _Kamen Yaiba_ figurine.

Ran smirked at him. "Feeling a little old, Conan-kun?"

"Hush it," he returned. "You have _no idea_ how much kids these days talk about that one show."

She hummed, turning her attention to the binoculares. "Hey, I remember the last time we were here…"

Now paying attention, Conan looked around. "Oh yeah… Huh. Too short to smack your face with a soda can now, but I'll do it later. Wait, no… Hold on a mo'."

He left her and went over to the nearby vending machine and purchased a couple of drinks. When he returned, it was to Ran staring out the window wistfully. Hopping up onto the tall guardrail, he pressed one of the cold cans against her cheek, causing her to jump away. "Did I scare you?" he asked innocently, parroting the same words he'd spoken the last time they were here.

Rolling her eyes, she took the can from him. "Come on," she said. "Let's make sure your _classmates_ don't get into too much trouble."

* * *

Of course, they were wrapped up in all sorts of trouble by the time they found them again. "You lost your figurine?" Ran repeated to the teary Ayumi, who nodded.

"I put my bags in front when I went to the restroom, but when I came back, it was gone." She sniffled.

Conan rocked his weight to his heels. "Someone must've switched them on accident."

Genta peered into the bag, the dumped its contents out, saying, "Might as well take a look."

Opening his mouth to protest at the disrespectful action, Conan paused upon seeing the items.

"Huh, a map, binoculars, and a flashlight," Genta noted. "But something's stuck here," he added, holding a loose sheet of notebook paper in his hands. Various symbols were scribbled over its surface.

_A code?_ Conan leaned in for a closer look, but then a stranger approached. "Excuse me," he said uncertainly, and Ayumi instantly perked up.

"Ah! That's my bag!"

A quick switcheroo and apology later, the man went off on his way and Ayumi was left hugging her _Kamen Yaiba_ doll in joy. Conan watched the man leave, somewhat suspicious of him.

His thoughts were confirmed a while later, when the man re-approached, asking for the sheet of paper. Genta hid its existence, but the way he rummaged through Ayumi's bag without a second thought, rather desperate for a coded piece of paper… Thankfully, Ran seemed to take notice of that as well and chased him off quickly, but…

Conan let his eyes drift to where the man was standing - beside two more, very shady-looking people.

* * *

_Why am I not surprised._

The next morning found Conan with the three kids, about to go treasure hunting. Although he told them otherwise, he had informed Ran about it, just in case they ran into trouble.

Those men from the day before were making him paranoid. Then again, it's only paranoia when it's wrong.

He looked up from his thoughts, just in time to see the other children puzzled and arguing as to where to start searching.

With a sigh and a quick look around, he eased his child act just a little bit, and took control of their conversation. Slowly, he steered them down the lane of deciphering the coded message.

Very, very slowly.

(They absolutely _refused_ to hear him out completely, and were always intent on bouncing away to search for their 'treasure' before he finished his sentence, dammit.)

It wasn't until later, when the little ones were complaining over how _that one isn't it either, _that Conan truly examined the sheet of paper.

The little three-letter word at the end, _'oro'_, rang a faint bell. He tried to think back - it was probably some other language that he hadn't used in a while -

"_Cosa ne pensi?"_

"_Troppo oro."_

He froze. _Gold?_

Flashing back to the news he'd heard earlier that morning, something about a group of people stealing gold leaf coins and something about Italy, Conan quickly pieced everything together.

He glanced over his shoulder.

As expected, a group of people were discreetly tailing them. _Those criminals… _

* * *

A couple of blunders and mistaken deductions later, at night, Conan finished guiding the kids through the coded instructions by following the neon signs, arriving at where the gold was supposed to be hidden at last. _Who would've known that it actually _was_ a treasure map?_

However, as Genta foolishly ran at the band of thieves instead of running _away_, like Conan instructed him to do, they were all caught and tied up by the people who'd been tailing them all day (and half the night).

Technically, he could've escaped rather quickly, but there was no way he'd leave three first graders alone with those people. Better to stay and watch over them.

_Click._

_Then again,_ Conan thought annoyedly, glaring at the gun pressed to his forehead, _this isn't exactly such a great plan anyway._

"So, where's the gold?" the man asked. Silence. He grew aggravated. "Do you want to die? I know you found the gold - where is it?"

"… The fish," Conan finally relented. "Where you can see the fish as it's drawn." Neon lights on the bridge. Reflected by the river.

The man moved away to look for the treasure, and Genta hissed to him, "Why'd you spill? Now they're going to kill us after they find it!"

"What do you think they would do if I _didn't_?" Conan snapped back, tired of dealing with them. "Kill me. Then, if they're smart, they'll probably point the gun at Ayumi, and tell _you two_ to spill or else they'll shoot _her._" The three of them cowered away, but Conan wasn't done. "Think before you speak. Think before you _act_. If you ran when I told you to, we wouldn't be in this situation, now would we?"

He bit back some more cutting words, reigning in his anger before Pandora expressed it through his eyes. Seeing the kids whimper and cry, he felt the last of his fury fade.

"Look," he said softly, catching their attention. "It's too early to give up. I have an idea. But you're going to have to listen to me for it to work, alright?"

They nodded meekly.

* * *

"And then I got them all to stand up and follow me to the bar that the ropes holding the bags of gold up were hooked on, and you won't believe how much of a miracle it is that they didn't notice our shuffling," Conan griped to Ran. "I swear, each step of theirs _echoed_."

"While yours were silent?" she inquired, stifling laughter, and he nodded frantically.

"Yeah, and after we finally got over to the stupid thing, I had to practically drag Ayumi around to the other side to hook the rope onto it. And when I told them to run forward once the thieves noticed the bags and let their guard down, once that happened, Genta screamed 'Run!' out loud, and they're _so_ lucky those guys weren't smart enough to figure out what was going on until the bags crashed on their heads," Conan ranted. "Not to mention how many times we tripped over each other in getting the police!"

"Well, everything's fine now, isn't it?" Ran chuckled, patting the detective on the head condescendingly. "Forgive them, they're children. And admit it. You had fun."

He huffed and turned his head away, but he was smiling a little. "I guess," he allowed grudgingly. "At least they weren't quite as loud as they could've been, and they _listened_ to me. I hope they learned something from that experience."

"I'm sure they did."

Rolling his eyes at her nonchalance, Conan rolled over on the bed. At least she wasn't freaking out anymore. _Ran's always feared spiritual things,_ he mused. _Ever since she was accused of it… Heh, even I got a little phobia from that. That was a dark time._

Well, the present wasn't exactly some bright thing, either. Conan put his hands behind his head and pondered the recent events - Sonoko, Ran's classmate, had invited them over to her villa. As a part of the Suzuki family, she was even richer than the Kudo's were. Upon arrival, he and Ran noticed a bandaged man, but dismissed it - however, a later series of events led to the murder of one of the other people Sonoko was hosting. Some sort of friendly reunion. Not quite so friendly anymore. And with the phones out of range, the landline cut, and the bridge taken down, nobody was sure what to do. They decided to sleep on it.

The lights clicked off, and Ran silently slipped into Conan's bed instead of returning to her own. He allowed it without question, knowing she was still rattled from when the bandaged man had tried to attack _her_. With an axe, of all things. While she slept, he continued to assess what had happened.

And thank _goodness_ he stayed awake, because he noticed the bandaged man come in _just in time_, and kicked Ran off the bed, out of the way of the axe as it was thrown down, saving her from a _very_ unfortunate wound and yet another bad memory.

"Ran!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet. _Damn, I don't have my shoes, I think my ankle's sprained anyway, and the watch's dart can't pierce through that cloak!_

The tumble she took woke her up quickly, and she jackknifed upright in alarm. She gave the axe-wielding attacker a single look of terror before rolling to the side, avoiding the weapon again. Then, without hesitation, she struck at the attacker furiously, shrieking at the top of her lungs to attract the others' attention.

Conan's brain continued to turn gears even as the disguised man fled and the other people arrived.

* * *

Solving the case was a snap.

After Ran had gotten attacked yet _again_ \- _geez, he really was desperate_ \- all Conan had to do was piece together the parts of the trick. And instead of struggling to work with the police force or the occhan, all he really needed was to whisper the explanation into Ran's ear while she carried him on her back (since his ankle was swollen and couldn't hold any weight).

Really, if the guy had just done nothing but hoped and prayed that Ran wouldn't remember, she never would've thought too hard on it. Neither would Conan. They'd have had a much harder time unraveling the case, though it would've come apart eventually. Just a bit later than it did this time.

The almost-suicide on the culprit's part was frustrating, but Conan managed to use his bowtie to yell at him in Ran's voice - fortunately, she caught on pretty quickly and lip-synced with his shouting.

The problem was what happened _after_ that case. In other words, _another_ case.

Sonoko had invited Ran and Conan to see a famous singer live, before his show, probably to make up for the murder incident at the villa. That idea didn't go quite as well as it could've.

The singer ended up dead. Of freaking course. Confusion and accusations and assumptions flew through the air for a long time before Conan solved it, informed Ran, had her explain it to Megure-keibu, and close the case. But it was a depressing series of events that led to the murder, filled with mistaken thoughts.

Conan had no doubt that neither Ran nor he were going to be listening to any of the band's songs anytime soon. Or ever. Lex would forever be scratched off the list.

_Bloody Venus ended up being a fitting last song - blood for death, Venus for the Roman goddess of love._ Conan kicked a rock grumpily. _Now, if only I could stop running into these cases… _

"Cheer up, Conan-kun," Ran chided softly, patting his head in a mock-condescending manner. "It's Christmas."

That only made him even more annoyed. It was Christmas. Christmas was supposed to be merry and carefree, not plagued by his streak of bad luck with running into cases.

At least he managed to buy a quick gift for Ran - a scarf, which she was currently wearing. She'd returned the gesture with a pair mittens, which were adorable and humiliating. But warm. And they could be changed into fingerless gloves by pulling back the top part, so he didn't complain too much.

"Please tell me we won't run into another case today," Conan sighed to nobody in particular.

Shrugging, Ran offered a light, "We'll see," before they arrived back at the Detective Agency, arms heavy with groceries.

Tromping up the stairs, Conan scurried ahead and waited impatiently at the door, the perfect picture of an eager child at Christmastime rushing ahead of his neechan. She laughed at him, balancing the bags in one hand as she searched out the keys. With a click and turn, the door swung open, and Conan rushed inside. He plopped everything onto the table.

"My arms hurt," he complained, rolling his shoulders.

"Too bad," Ran returned, setting her things on the table as well. "They had great discounts today, so we're stocking up for a while. Anyway, what - "

The doorbell rang. "Ran!" Kogorou shouted from his desk. "Can you get that?"

"_Hai, hai_," she responded, going over to the door with Conan at her heels. She opened it to reveal a woman holding her purse and smiling lightly at them. "Ah, hello." Mental alarms went off - she was wearing black.

"Hello, dear," the stranger said perkily, and then looked down to see Conan, who was playing a shy boy act and hiding behind Ran's legs, peeking at the woman every now and then. "Conan-kun! Momma's here!"

_What the hell?_

Conan froze, eyes wide. _But - how - what - that makes no sense - how did she - Conan doesn't _have_ a mom, dammit -_

Ran clamped a hand on his shoulder reassuringly as the woman continued, "I'm so sorry, Conan-kun, you must have been so lonely by yourself, but don't worry! Momma's here now - so come home with me!" She opened her arms, obviously expecting a hug.

"Ah - um," Conan stuttered. Barely choking back a _who the _hell_ are you?!_, he managed to say, "Uh, what?"

Blinking, Ran said carefully, "You're his mother?"

"That's right!" the woman said, pulling out a business card. "Edogawa Fumiyo - Conan-kun's mother!"

_Freaking liar,_ Conan thought sourly. He flinched when she suddenly grasped his wrist and pulled him into a tight embrace. He opened his mouth, about to scream, when a distinct smell hit his nose, and he stopped.

_That's makeup!_ Scrutinizing the edges of the woman's face, he recognized the little signs of a mask. _The only one who'd do this is our bird, I suppose, since I've covered my tracks, but… _

"Ah, Ran-neechan, it's okay," he said hurriedly, before the karate champ could drop the woman to the floor.

She eyed him, but relented, letting go of her clenched fists. "You're leaving now?"

"Maybe. 'Kaasan, can I go pack my stuff?" Conan asked his 'mom'. She nodded, releasing him, and he dashed away.

* * *

"So." Sitting in the car, safely in motion and away from the detective agency, he glanced at the woman carefully. "What's so important that you came to see me in person?" he inquired, leaning back in a relaxed position. He chose his words carefully, in case she was under watch.

"What do you _mean_ 'what's so important', of course this is important - " Suddenly stopping, 'Edogawa Fumiyo' blinked at him in total confusion. "Wait… I didn't freak you out or anything?"

"You should know that just wearing black isn't enough to make me run away screaming," Conan responded dryly, but the hints of doubt began to take root. "Not even after all of this crap happened," he added, gesturing to his body with a look of annoyed disdain.

"How did you know it was me?"

_Is she really asking that?_ "Come on, I've lived with you for long enough to know what a mask looks and feels like. You smell like someone drowned you in makeup, too. Now, quit beating around the bush - what's the raven doing so far from her nest of crows?"

"Raven?" the woman echoed, looking utterly lost. Conan raised a brow at her, and she shook her head with a childish pout - which looked familiar, but wrong. And then he realized, _This isn't her._ "_Mou_, I get that you saw through it, but there's really no need to tease me with random words like that!"

Conan's 'mom' grasped the edge of the mask and tore it off fluidly.

He immediately sat up in alarm, spluttering out, "Oi, _kaasan?!"_

Kudo Yukiko raised an eyebrow. "What, you _weren't_ expecting me? Then who did you think I was?"

"N-nobody," Conan replied shakily. _Okay, I totally forgot about her, but okay._ "Then, if you're here… Dad's probably around somewhere, too. Where are we going?"

"Beika hotel," she responded. "Your dad's waiting there - we were hoping to stage a little something for you, but you saw right through me! I'll have to make sure my skills aren't getting dull, I can't believe I forgot…"

Already piecing together what that 'something' would've been, Conan facepalmed.

They exchanged small talk - mostly Yukiko explaining how they came to know that Shinichi was Conan; _so much for secrecy, hakase_ \- for a while, before arriving at Beika hotel. Yukiko took him up to room 301, opening the door and ushering him in quickly.

Conan deadpanned at the masked man sitting on the couch, "You're tousan, aren't you."

Taking off the mask, Kudo Yusaku asked with a chuckle, "Was the Night Baron reference a giveaway?" He tapped the mask with his hand.

"Nope, I just happened to notice that kaasan was wearing a face mask." Conan hopped up to sit beside his father. "What did you need to talk to me about? And were you _trying_ to scare me?"

"Yes, actually," Yusaku said, smiling at his son. "So come back with us to America, and have a carefree life."

Conan wasn't sure he could keep handling surprises like these. "What?" He did_ not_ squeak.

"Shin-chan, this is really very dangerous," Yukiko said, hovering over her son. "We were going to show you by staging an act, but - well, you saw through that."

"That doesn't eliminate the danger, however," Yusaku continued. He pat Conan's arm. "Come on, we'll be safe together. And don't worry. I've got friends in the Interpol, I'll ask them to search for this organization - "

"And condemn them to death?" Conan regarded his father cooly, recomposed. "No. I'll not have any deaths on my conscious, tousan." _At least no more than I already have… _"I'm not going. This is _my_ case. And it's not just that, I have other reasons not to leave Japan." _Ran,_

Yukiko protested, "Shin-chan!", but Yusaku only sighed.

"Well, if your mind is set… Besides, I'm sure your _other reason_ is very important," he added with a wink.

Conan fought the urge to stick his tongue at them. He had _much _better ideas for revenge.

* * *

"And that's what happened," Conan concluded with a bright smile.

Ran scoffed, choking on her laughter. "And what, pray tell, was that ingenious idea for revenge?"

"I told the people waiting on his manuscripts exactly where he was," Conan answered smugly. "Serves him right for trying to fool me, failing to, and for trying to drag me away. Though the ten million yen paid to the occhan helps, too."

It was late, but this was the first time in a while that they'd been able to exchange free words. Things kept popping up one after another; Conan had guided the newly-dubbed Detective Boys through a case, puppeted the old man in another, and desperately hoped that everything he fabricated - from his leading the kids to pretending to be Kogorou - wouldn't fall apart.

Stress, stress, and stress.

With any luck, this case wouldn't be quite as frustrating. However, the client's message kind of indicated otherwise, with the whole '_hey I sent some money to you, come to this island or else'_ sort of vibe.

Conan peered out to sea, quickly spotting their destination - Tsukikage island - looming ahead. "Want to bet that something will happen?" he asked Ran.

"What, on a relaxing little island in the middle of the Izu sea?" Ran returned. A moment later, she added with a roll of her eyes, "Yeah, I'm not stupid enough to take on that bet."

The ship's horn sounded, indicating that their ride was coming to a close. Conan hopped down from the railing. "The ojisan still in the bathroom?"

"Mhm. He'll be out in a moment, I'm sure."

Once the detective reappeared, the three of them disembarked, headed for the reception center.

The fact that the person they were searching for, their client named _Asao Keiji_, was dead, almost wasn't a surprise. Listening carefully to the retelling of his death, Conan frowned. Obviously, someone wanted them to take a look into this pianist's death - but why? Sure, the Moonlight Sonata thing was strange, but… Insanity wasn't all that uncommon.

Still, tugging on Kogorou's clothes, he managed to convince him to take a deeper look into the case. By asking a resident doctor called Narumi-sensei, they discovered a few more things, particularly the upcoming election. Conan had long since learned that politics influenced too many things to be healthy. Couldn't be helped, but it always resulted in a huge mess. Inevitably. Thus, they went to visit the current heads.

Curiosity and boredom got the better of Conan as the three of them waited to meet the mayor, so he wandered off a little, discovering a room containing an extremely dusty piano. Ran and her father trailed behind him, scolding at first, but they were intrigued by it as well.

"Couldn't they have been bothered to clean it, at least a little?" Ran mused, reaching out to wipe off a bit of the dirt - only to be stopped by a frantic official. While he explained the 'curse' on the piano, as well as its unhappy history, Conan fought against the childish urge to touch it, just to see if the man would scream. He lost. Badly.

_Do re mi fa sol la si do - si, la so la, si sol mi sol re, mi re si re mi sol la… _

Ran clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp of laughter, while the official startled, violently, and stared at the child on the piano with a horrified look.

Sliding off of the bench and grinning cheekily at the man, Conan strolled out like nothing had happened.

However, once safely out of sight, his gaze sharpened, casting off the childish light. _That piano was perfectly in tune, which is impossible if it truly hadn't been touched since the first layer of dust began building up. Someone's been taking care of it, and leaving the dust in place to ensure secrecy. But why?_

* * *

_One death, two deaths_, Conan thought coldly, watching the doctor examine the second body as Megure-keibu and everyone else looked on. _Though they're all red…_

Shaking the thoughts away - he blamed the Moonlight Sonata's presence for putting random nursery rhymes into his head - he refocused himself onto the crime. It was downright _despicable_ to issue a letter to Kogorou foretelling of the murders, and then carrying them out. Whoever the culprit was, Conan was _not_ about to let the person walk free.

_Last night,_ he recalled, _Ran found some sheet music at the murder scene and later discovered that parts of it were different - altered by the culprit, most likely. We slept there overnight to dissuade further murders around the piano, but it seems that's not going to stop the culprit._

His eyes travelled over to the music notes painted on the floor in blood. It was long dried, by the look and feel of it. "Some of those are… sharps and flats, right?" Conan asked Ran, glancing over at the musical notations. He learned songs by ear, so he wasn't sure of the symbols.

"You're right," Ran nodded. "They move the notes up and down on the keyboard, as you know."

"The key… Oh." Suddenly, more pieces clicked into place, and Conan slowly read out loud from memory, "'You understand. Your turn is next'."

Everyone turned to look at him, startled.

"It's a code," he explained, somewhat impatiently. "By assigning the alphabet to the piano, one letter to one key, from left to right. Those weird notes from last night read, '_wakaterru na, tsugiha omae no ban da'._"

"Then…" Ran examined the one in front of them. "This one - ah, _'goukano onnen koki ni hara seri'_ \- which, put together, reads as 'hellfire's anger has burned away'."

As everyone snapped back and forth as they discussed the new developments, the old officer assigned to the island entered the conversation, offering some information on the deceased Asao. Conan volunteered to walk back with the policeman to fetch the keys for the music notes, but by the time they arrived and actually found the little metal thing, everyone back at the building had left in impatience.

Ran reported that they thought the murders would be over, since the anger had 'burned away', but Conan pointed out that there were three more movements of Moonlight yet to be played.

When they went back to unlock the notes, hoping to get a jump start on the next day, they were interrupted by a noise - which Conan went to investigate and found one of the people lying on the ground, not quite dead - and a scream from Ran, as she and the officer opened the storeroom to reveal a hanging body.

Cue chaos. Megure-keibu and Kogorou making mistaken deductions, or perhaps just naively hoping.

Conan found a tuning hammer by the unconscious-but-not-dead guy, and realized that he must've been going to tune the piano. And this night, in doing so, he probably came across the culprit unluckily, and was attacked.

But what had the culprit been doing with the piano? Standing under the large instrument, Conan reached to the underside of the piano and prodded it, searching for anything out of place.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing?" Ran asked, kneeling to watch him work.

"The weird guy I saw who jumped out the window, he had his hand under the piano for some reason," Conan answered. "I think something's here."

A moment later, something clicked and slid open, revealing a secret compartment.

Moving to the side to let Ran examine it more thoroughly, being tall enough to peer into the actual compartment, something on the floor caught Conan's eye.

He crouched beside it, poking the substance with his finger. _Some sort of white powder, huh? I wonder… _Carefully, he brought it to his mouth and touched the residue with his tongue. As soon as he registered the taste, he flinched back. _That's cocaine!_

* * *

Mind whirling, Conan shot out of the broadcasting room he'd been using to announce his deductions with Kogorou's voice, running towards the community center with the sheet music that had been locked up for years clutched in his hand. He prayed he wouldn't be too late, since the fact that Narumi-sensei was gone so fast meant she had a _plan_, she had something she needed to do -

Suicide.

_No!_

Conan ran faster.

He saw the blazing building and the people gathered around it - and he pushed through the crowd, stumbling a little, but ducked out of everyone's immediate view and charged into the inferno, covering himself with his arms as he barged into the hallways.

_The piano room, the piano room,_ he thought frantically, skidding around a corner and reorienting himself. Smoke hazed the air, choking the breath out of his lungs, but he had to keep going, he wasn't going to let her die in this blaze, he wanted her - _him_ \- arrested, not dead.

Coughing harshly, Conan staggered for a moment, but his free hand brushed a door frame, the piano room's door frame, he was so close, just a little further…

"It's over, otousan," he heard Narumi-sensei whisper. "It's all over…"

"No, it's not!" Conan retorted, voice rasping. He stepped towards him, offering the sheets. "Look, your father's sheet music, it says, 'Seiji, you must live a full life', so - _cough_ \- come on, let's get out of here, we can still make it!"

He gazed at the papers quietly for a moment. Then, he began to speak - not, Conan realized, horrified, intending to escape at all. When his voice became broken by the smoke, Conan took the break in words as an opportunity to surge forward, grabbing the doctor's arm.

"Come on," he begged, eyes stinging as he yanked on his arm. "Please, come on, let's get out of here, Seiji-san - " He coughed again, gasping for air. Ice flooded his body, trying to drive away the burning heat, but it only made him dizzier.

Gently, Seiji lifted Conan up and looked him directly in the eyes. "It's too late," he said softly. "My hands have already been soiled by the blood of those four…"

"N-no," Conan protested around a wheeze. But he couldn't do anything, his vision was already darkening at the edges as his body threw itself into a panic, struggling for air, because _it wasn't smoke he was breathing, no, he was inhaling polluted seawater that scraped against the inside of his lungs, a weight chained to his ankles and hands and dragging him down, the jeers of the town citizens fading as he sunk deeper and deeper into the cool darkness, crimson eyes clenched shut, those eyes were the motive -_

And suddenly he was flying, shattering the window as he hurtled through the air, slamming into the unkind ground with the heat at his back and cool winds blowing fresh gusts of wind into his mouth. He took only a moment to recover, panting. Once he could vaguely see the moon in the sky, he decided he was rested enough and forced himself into an upright position, trying to get his feet beneath him.

"Conan-kun!" Ran grabbed his wrists and held him still when he tried to re-enter the blazing building. "Stop."

He writhed in her hold, weakly fighting to free himself. However, several notes resounded through the air, and he paused to listen - and then collapsed in Ran's hold the moment they stopped, easily decoding them in his head.

"_Thank you, little detective."_

* * *

_... tsudzuku ..._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Slooooowly moving through the volumes. Very, very slowly. You have no idea how tempted I am to skip all the way to Heiji (...is he even that far away?), so I will be jumping cases because the explanations take too long and are boring because you all already know how it ends! I did want to include the Moonlight Sonata one, and I added some little things in there. Hinting at some past experiences and stuff. Word count for this one is a bit over 8,000, which is nice.

A review response, which I forgot last time, sorry:

**Ar**: Thank you for reviewing both chapters! Since I'm speeding up the plot, I am also assuming that their technology is much, much better than what it is in canon, so yeah, they get proper cell phones, not... those old things. XD

Challenge! Who knows who the raven is? Guess all you like, but I'm not revealing it until later. I just want to see how obvious it is.

And yes, I'm posting this early. Why? Because I'm doing NaNoWriMo, which I'm super excited about, so my November installment will probably not happen.

Did you hear that?

NANOWRIMO IN NOVEMBER SO PROBABLY NO CHAPTER THEN.

Great, thanks! Drop a review if you'd like, I promise you the recap will be skimmed as much as possible so we can get to the actual fun plot.

Until next time~ Thanks again for reading, and if you reviewed, special thanks to you!

* * *

*posted: Oct. 15, 2014


	4. Four Contact Points

_"Life is only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."  
\- Mars, from Son of Neptune, by Rick Riordan_

* * *

**. : WITHOUT MORTALITY : .  
**_... "shibō nakute" ..._

_a detective conan x magic kaito au fanfiction  
feat. immortal!Shinichi and immortal!Ran_

Four Contact Points

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.

* * *

_... tsudzukeru ..._

* * *

Recovering from the smoke was an absolute _pain_.

Not to mention the confused chaos that ensued when a client came along claiming to be _dating Shinichi._ At first, Conan almost suspected their undercover raven again, but quickly dismissed the idea. Ran was doing her overprotective thing, still worried over him and his lungs, so she wasn't in the best of moods upon hearing that. Nonetheless, she had no choice but to play along. In the end, everything was resolved fine, what with the kidnapping of the soccer player's brother having not really been all that malevolent in the first place and it being just a misunderstanding.

Conan fully recovered by the time Agasa sent them over to the mystery tour - something about a book his tousan had written, the Night Baron. However, not long after meeting all the other participants, he got thrown over the freaking _balcony _and plunged into the pool.

Briefly, he panicked, but managed to swim up to the surface before any bad memories could return, scrambling out of the water as fast as possible. Someone asked after him, but he ignored him, charging back up the stairs to try and see who'd had the _gall_ to push him off the balcony.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone there. Later in the party, Conan asked around, discovering that the 'prize' wasn't just half the stay paid for, but also a computer virus - the Night Baron. A while after that, the inevitable death happened; someone dressed in a Night Baron suit plummeted from the sky and was impaled by a statue's spear.

Cursing his rotten luck, Conan spent a bit of his time examining the crime scene before he was chased away by Kogorou and a police officer he'd met on a previous case.

A couple of complications rose up, but in the end, Ran managed to prove her highly-respected karate champion innocent, which lead to the unraveling of the rest of the case. Only… the resolution wasn't exactly clear-cut, tainted as it was by sadness.

_But maybe,_ Conan thought, watching the guilty party walk away, _they can recover from this, in time._

Ran noted the melancholy look on his face, and tapped his shoulder. "Something happier, next time?"

"Please," he sighed - and that was how he ended up, a while later, accompanying Ran and Sonoko as they attended one of their teachers' wedding.

Between those two girls and the teacher, Matsumoto-sensei, it was a wonder that they only managed to squeeze in a few jabs to Shinichi's lack of relative pitch before the bride's father came in, momentarily freaking everyone out with his stature, before revealing that he was actually police. A superintendent, to be precise, and Megure-keibu had tagged along, too. Everyone exchanged a few words, including the groom, who came in a little later, before eventually going off on their own. Just before everything was about to get started, though, Ran pulled Conan to the side and pressed some bread and milk into his hands.

"I bet you're hungry, you even skipped breakfast today," Ran said pointedly. He rolled his eyes.

"It's not my fault that I" - _clink-clink_ \- "had to get up ear… Did you hear that?"

Ran was already moving, opening the door to the room where Matsumoto-sensei had been waiting - and gasped, taking in the scene. "Matsumoto-sensei!"

"An ambulance, Ran!" Conan snapped, crouching by the collapsed teacher's side. While Ran dashed away, he quickly scanned the nearby objects, taking in and filing away information - _don't think about the blood - the can, the lemon tea, its can is starting to corrode - yet the straw is intact - that means caustic soda! I need to wash it out of her mouth, somehow._

Snatching up a different can of lemon tea, he poured its contents into her mouth, tipping her head so that it spilled out onto the blood-stained floor quickly afterwards, hopefully taking away remaining traces of the caustic soda with it.

It wasn't working as well as Conan needed it to, so he dropped the can. _What else? Something with protein, something with - the milk!_

Grabbing the container of milk Ran had given him, he yanked it open. _Please,_ he prayed as he repeated his prior motions with the lemon tea, but using the milk instead. _Please, work._

In his arms, the victim shuddered.

* * *

"I thought you said _happier_," Conan complained to Ran. "That was a really depressing case. It's a freaking miracle that she's okay and will be out of the hospital in only a couple months."

"Then you're a miracle, Conan-kun," she responded drily. "Since it was your quick response to the crisis that saved her. And you deduced the murderer."

"Which, by the way, was _also extremely depressing,_" Conan reminded. Then, he sighed. "Not to mention what happened the day after that. Those kids are going to give me consecutive heart attacks!"

"Oh?" Ran smirked at him. "Does this have something to do with your muttering earlier?"

"About those 'goddamn idiots'? Yup. Ayumi got herself locked into some guy's trunk while we were playing hide-and-seek, and I'm not even going to mention what Mitsuhiko indirectly told me, and then we used the skateboard that the hakase made for me and chased down the car, thinking that the drivers were the serial murderers named in the morning newspaper because of the bloody head prop that Ayumi found in that trunk, and it just all tumbled downhill. Thankfully, I realize it was fake just in time, and told the people that we were chasing them because we were afraid that Ayumi would suffocate in there or something. That way, we weren't punished for anything, because we were just children worried for our friend!"

Ran made a noncommittal noise.

Currently, they were at Kogorou's class reunion - Ran recalled being present at a similar meeting five years ago, with a picture of her at the ping-pong room with a younger version of the current attendees to prove it. Conan caught a look at the picture and couldn't help but smile at the cheerful, childish look in her eyes. "You're so much better at playing the kid than I am," he'd said.

"Only because you're doing it by yourself this time, without me to help you," came the teasing reply.

Sadly, nostalgia wasn't enough to keep away another case.

Ran and Conan continued to talk freely, stopping their personal conversation only to meet up with Kogorou and watch the fireworks. Afterwards, upon returning to reunite with the other people - who'd disappeared at various points along the way to and during the fireworks - they peeked into one of the rooms to wake up the 'Madonna' of the judo team…

Only to find her dead.

The ensuing investigation started normally enough, but quickly began to skew in varying directions, different aspects of the crime scene being odd and not matching up. So, trying to make him take a deeper look, Conan pestered Kogorou about how it was too soon to assume that someone from outside their group had committed the crime, but he was cut off when the old man slammed his fist against the wall.

"Shut up!" he snapped. "I don't want to hear about it, and especially not from a kid." Conan bit his tongue to stop a retort, but continued to listen. "Of course it's not a damn outsider, why would an outsider bother to make it look like a suicide? One of us did it! One of my _best friends!_ I don't know how or why, but I'll expose them for sure, no matter what!"

Watching the man storm off in a haze of rage, Conan's gaze shifted, echoing sadness and pain. _Occhan…_

Left alone in the hall, he shook himself and refocused. Now he was more determined to solve the case than ever. Heading back towards their room, his eyes strayed to the small statue displayed on a pedestal against the wall, and he idly identified the figure to be Benkei, the warrior that the inn was named after.

He almost walked right past it, but stopped, twisted around, and stared. _Wait - Benkei was said to have died on his feet on the battlefield… That's it!_

Understanding flitted across his face, and Conan looked back over his shoulder to where Kogorou had been stomping down the hall. He habitually flipped up the cover of his watch as he approached the other detective, getting ready to tranquilize him, but the words from minutes before echoed in his ears.

"_I'll expose them for sure, no matter what!"_ he'd said. Who was Conan to take that away from him?

Taking a deep breath, he closed the lid on his watch. Outward signs of his focus melted away. _Alright, then. We'll do it this way._ Conan centered himself - and jumped forward, chirping happily, "Ne, ojisan, let's play a game of ping pong!"

* * *

A bit of metaphorically spoon-fed deductions later, everything was resolved. Kogorou took down the resisting culprit with his rarely-used judo, though he seemed rather melancholy as he watched the police cars leave with someone he had once called his best friend. A couple days later, though, everything was back to normal, including the horrifying murders with depressing resolutions.

Until the _other_ detective came along.

Eying the kansai-ben teen warily, Conan sneezed. Ran had made up some statement about how Shinichi called her often enough, but the newcomer poked holes in that idea so fast he was worried that his cover would be blown, for a moment. But when it was proposed that Shinichi had been spying on Ran from somewhere, the uneasiness faded as both Conan and Ran traded covert looks of amusement. Technically, he was half right, since Shinichi was 'undercover', and yet technically half wrong, since it wasn't _spying_.

Except that amusement went away quickly for Conan when the stranger - who introduced himself as Hattori Heiji, high school detective of the west, looking for Kudo to see if he was good enough to be compared to him - fed him some drink saying it'd help with his cold.

Ran nearly doubled over in laughter when the sudden intake of alcohol instantly intoxicated him.

After that, a client had strolled in, proposing a case. And, of course, Hattori Heiji decided it would be a _great_ idea to tag along, to Conan's chagrin. He wasn't about to leave Ran alone with him, so he went with them to investigate, too - silently suffering, as it seemed the alcohol had only made his cold _worse._

_I bet it's you,_ Conan thought moodily at his watch. _Thanks for nothing, Pandora. Can't take medicine, whether that's alcohol or not, without you freaking out and leaving me with a headache and fever, is that it?_

As if in retaliation to his mental statement, a murder case popped up.

While Heiji instantly pounced onto the scene and - briefly knocking heads with Conan, _ow,_ \- exchanged words with the police once they arrived, Ran leaned down and whispered to Conan, "You know, the way he moves kinda reminds me of you. Bigger you."

"Very… funny…" he panted. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his rapidly blurring vision and listen to the investigation at the same time. "And I think… I know… culprit…"

She frowned, touching his forehead. "Hey, you're really burning up. Do you want to lay down?"

"After this… definitely," he agreed tiredly. "Just… after - "

And then pain seized his chest, choking him on his next breath. His knees collapsed and almost hit the floor, if it hadn't been for Ran and her quick reflexes. She scooped him up in her arms, cradling his feverish body.

He vaguely noted that she was asking the people for someplace to lay him down, and tried to move his arms to get her attention. Through his fading sight, he made out the stature of Heiji, and he could hear that he was announcing something - with a bunch of fishing line in his pocket, if he was interpreting those weird strings correctly. But that was wrong. _Wait,_ Conan wanted to say. _There's a trick to this, and Hattori is about to fall into the trap laid by the _real_ culprit!_ But nothing more than a soft, delirious moan escaped his lips.

Heat raged through his system, setting his nerves aflame - as he struggled to hold back a cry of pain, his own heartbeat resounding his ears, he spasmed in Ran's hold, grasping her clothes tightly in his hands.

She was - carrying him out of the room? And laying him down on a bed. A quiet whimper slipped out.

"Shh, it's alright," she whispered, stroking his head.

"N-no," he rasped, and jerked as another pulse of pain tore at his chest, burning his insides to what felt like ashes. "He's… w-_wrong!"_

"What?"

"_Wrong,"_ Conan repeated, heaving. He gritted his teeth against another rush of fire. "S-so hot…"

"Pandora is _cold_," Ran said, cupping his face in her hands. "Is it working?"

Hacking, he voiced a negative sound. "F-feels like… When I s-shrunk…"

Ran responded, he was sure. Her mouth was moving. But he couldn't hear her. Couldn't see her, either…

* * *

"Holy shit," he heard.

Groaning, he rolled over, absently noting that he was in different clothes, and that he was soaked in sweat. "That's the first thing I hear when I wake up. Glorious."

He didn't get a response. Annoyed, he opened his eyes to glare at - oh. Ran. _She doesn't usually curse… At least, not out loud. Wonder what's got her so spooked?_

He got his answer in the form of a mirror.

Shinichi Kudo stared at himself in the reflective surface, gaping. "I'm…"

"No longer fun-sized," Ran filled in. "Which is good. But also not."

_Not._ Shinichi's eyes widened as that rang a bell, reminding him of a certain situation. "I've gotta correct him!" he shouted, springing to his feet - and almost falling over as he overbalanced himself. "That Hattori's got it all wrong, he's going to blame the wrong person!"

Stumbling forward, he reached for the door. Ran grabbed one of his arms and draped it over her shoulder. Wordlessly, he gave her a grateful look as she helped him down the hallway, into the room where Heiji was just wrapping up his deduction.

"No, that's wrong!" he interrupted the 'culprit's confession, straightening and taking some of his weight off of Ran. While everyone sputtered at him and his sudden appearance incoherently, Heiji only raised a brow.

"My deduction is wrong?"

"Yes," Shinichi stated clearly, and then proceeded to rattle off all the things wrong with the Osakan detective's reasoning. Then, he leaned forward, while they were still stunned by the revelation, and continued to present his own deduction.

At that point, he wasn't really thinking about what he was saying. It was already habit to explain such things, so he could focus on something else while his mouth kept moving, such as not falling over.

Even with Ran's steady hold on his shoulder, he could feel himself swaying. _This isn't good…_

He was all too relieved when the end came, and leaned against the bookshelf in exhaustion.

"Jeez, so my deductin' was off from the start," Heiji noted, sticking his hands into his pockets. "Well, I hafta hand it to ya, Kudo. It was my loss through 'n through this time."

Snorting, Shinichi retorted, "_Barou_. There's no winning or losing in this sort of thing. It's not a game, people's lives are at stake… And besides, there's only one truth."

Heiji looked at him carefully for a moment. "Well, yer right about tha'. And… Oi, do you really have _jus'_ a cold?" Peering closer, he added, "You look like yer about ta fall over!"

"I'll be fine," Shinichi said. Ran offered him a hand, and when he took it, she pulled him off the shelf, steadying him on his feet. He winced when the pounding in his chest redoubled, a fresh surge of heat throbbed through his body. "I don't think it's permanent," he murmured under his breath to Ran, before raising his voice so Heiji could hear, "I've got to go, there's something I need to - "

The flames built up again, and Shinichi cut himself off with a low hiss of pain. His heart pounded loudly enough to echo in his head. Refusing the urge to crumple onto the ground, he gently pushed Ran away.

_Secret_, his eyes reminded her. _Distract him._ She nodded almost imperceptibly and grabbed Heiji's arm, pulling him with her as she shouted something about calling in a doctor.

Grateful for her entire being, Shinichi limped in the other direction, nearly falling down some stairs along the way, and spotted a bathroom. He ducked into it quickly, and as soon as he closed the door behind him, his muscles seized up, sending him sprawling onto the floor. _Crap, crap - I can't get up -_

Heartbeat stuttering as it sounded unnaturally loud in his ear, Shinichi curled up on the ground. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep the screams from surfacing. In the end, he screamed anyway.

* * *

Upon waking, once more in a shrunken form, Conan was informed that Shinichi's name stayed out of the newspapers by Ran's insistence, and that he'd been found unconscious in the bathroom. The doctor had looked him over and said it was something akin to stress compounding the effects of the fever, and suggested some extended downtime to remedy it.

During this time, Ran had noticed that he was less than totally awake, and idly commented that she was going to meet Shinichi. Conan only nodded acceptingly, not even thinking twice about what she'd said, until she laughed at him and corrected herself. She was actually going to meet her mom, Kisaki Eri.

"And you're not allowed to leave the bed until I come back," Ran stated firmly. "And don't even think about touching the alcohol." Conan pouted at that. _She knows me too well._

However, when she met the little kids upon leaving, Ran amended her rules to allow Conan to go out and play with them - as long as what they did was something that didn't require exertion on his part. They happily complied, dragged him out to the library, and ran smack into another murder case.

Then, to make sure the kids didn't investigate by themselves, Conan went with them at night to thoroughly search and find exactly what was going on. They discovered the hidden drugs and the body on the elevator, but were attacked by the culprit - luckily, with some quick thinking, they managed to take him down.

After _that_, Ran secretly lent him some of the alcohol, and he brought it over to Agasa to have him analyze it and its effects. He tried drinking some to return to normal again, but that only resulted in a hangover the next day. Which flat-out _sucked._

Besides that, however, not a lot was achieved in the next several weeks, sans several murder cases that made 'Sleeping Kogorou' even more famous and inflated his ego even more, to Conan's chagrin. At least Agasa had made a couple of additions to his stash of gadgets, and it was much easier to manipulate the police into stumbling over the truth.

After another adventure with his classmates - who'd proceeded to dub themselves, including Conan, as the _shounen tantei-dan_ \- through a rather dangerous investigation on a treasure hunt, he finally encountered something important.

While Ran enjoyed some games at Baker hotel, where Kogorou had been invited as an honored guest, Conan went off to buy some tomato juice to hopefully eliminate the last of Kogorou's intoxication from the night before. However, just as he was about the purchase the drink from the vending machine, he heard the massive man behind him - _black_, paranoia whispered, but he'd ignored it - dial a call.

And say, quietly but clearly, "Yes, it's me - Tequila."

_An alcohol._ Conan froze. _It's them. He's a crow._

Oblivious to his alarm, Tequila continued, "The exchange was completed very nicely - no, there weren't problems. Don't worry your head over it, Vodka. I'll meet you and Gin this afternoon."

Stunned, the wallet slipped from Conan's hands, scattering the coins noisily over the floor. Impulsively, Conan peeled off his tracker-bug sticker as he crouched to collect them. _Maybe…_

"It's just a kid who dropped his coins," Tequila was telling Vodka. Then, he hung up.

_Now or never._ Shyly, Conan tugged at Tequila's shoe. "Excuse me, mister," he said childishly. "You're stepping on some of my coins, could you move your foot?"

He got a kick in the ribs for his troubles, which _hurt_. But at least didn't leave any visible marks. Besides, he'd tagged the crow's shoe with the sticker, and now he could eavesdrop.

Turning on his glasses, Conan continued to pick up the rest of his coins as he listened in. There was some static, but he could make out most of it. _From the sounds… He's in the bathroom?_ "It's the micro…" Tequila's voice fuzzed into static, but then cleared as he muttered, "Doesn't want to go in, weird… Hm? Hey, why's it open? Ah - "

And then the bathroom exploded.

Conan ducked for cover as the blast tore through a couple of walls, but fortunately didn't reach the wall he was hiding behind. As soon as the smoke and debris began to settle, he dashed into the charred room despite some bystanders protesting worriedly.

He found Tequila's show and retrieved his tracker-bug before the police could arrive, tsking to himself. He wasn't able to prevent a death like he'd wanted to - even though it wasn't quite the death he'd been expecting.

In any case, once they arrived, he told the police what he knew. Of course, he excluded the existence of the crows' organization. And some of his deductions about what had happened.

He wondered who in the world would be targeting a crow… Or whether or not the crow was targeted at all.

Narrowing his eyes, Conan watched the reception desk give out the briefcases back to their owners - and suddenly had a thought. He observed the people who'd greeted Kogorou earlier and their actions, and very rapidly came to a solid conclusion.

_Now all I need to do is convince them… I'll use occhan for this, it's too complicated otherwise._ However, before he could use his tranquilizer, someone tripped him and sent him crashing into Ran's butt. She stiffened and whirled around, striking out with a foot to attack her would-be groper.

To his immense relief, Conan was too short to be hit, though Kogorou was suitably knocked out.

"Sorry, Ran-neechan," Conan apologized. "Someone tripped me, and I ran into you…"

"Ah, that's fine." Ran blinked at her dad. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Probably not, but I can use this," Conan responded lightly, readying his bowtie. Ran sighed and rolled her eyes, but stepped back to watch the deduction show.

* * *

'_Le cocktail' just blew up, so that led to nowhere,_ Conan mused. That cafe had been where the other side of the transaction had met Tequila, but that was the only thing said person knew. And it exploded before Conan could even enter the building, so that didn't matter anyway. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about it…

_Enough is enough,_ he thought to himself with a mental shake._ If someone got caught in the blast, it's too late to worry about it now. And our bird won't get killed that easily._

Turning his attention away from the past, Conan happily announced his name to the rest of the Holmes fans in the room. They all cooed adorably at him, chattering about his splendid name. Ran sighed and looked like she wanted to bang her head against the wall. "He always loved Holmes…" she murmured, half to herself.

"Hm?" he father asked.

"Ah - Shinichi, I meant," Ran elaborated. "He'd be so excited at a meeting like this, he'd act like a seven-year-old child." She winked at Conan, who huffed at her.

Before he could respond, someone else did. "A maniac o' Holmes mysteries," came the Osakan drawl. "Better at soccer th'n music, better at deductions th'n even me, though he ran off pretty fast…"

_Aw, crap. Nooo…_ Now it was Conan who wanted to bang his head against the wall.

"Yer talkin' about Kudo Shinichi, ain't ya?" Hattori Heiji concluded, smirking.

"Ah - Hattori-kun," Ran greeted. "You like Sherlock Holmes too?"

"No, actually, I jus' thought I'd meet Kudo here," Heiji replied with a bright smile. "Ellery Queen's works fascinate me" - his grin faltered when everyone else started glaring at him - "but I do admit that Conan Doyle's one o' the best in the genre," he added to appease the others.

Then, the host entered, cutting in and explaining some of what was planned. Conan's eyes lit up at the prospect of the prize - he already had a copy in the Kudo mansion, but seeing another, in extremely fair condition, was impressive.

Beaming, Conan took a copy of the test with him and brought it to work on in the room, ignoring Ran's amused looks tossed his way. It was relatively simple - his photographic memory helped a lot. He worked on it diligently, until dinner came, by which point he'd finished it.

Something felt wrong the moment Conan realized the host wasn't appearing on time.

The feeling only worsened with each passing moment.

Until, a little later, the corpse popped up - unsurprisingly.

Setting his thoughts of Holmes to the side, Conan focused on the current, very real-life murder mystery sitting in front of his face.

* * *

He ended up tranqing Heiji instead of Kogorou. The prior was more convenient, and more suitable, but… Oops. At least his Kansai-ben was relatively passable… Maybe. Though that didn't exactly help when the teenaged detective 'woke up', turned right around to face Conan in the eye, and stated, "Yer Kudo, ain't ya?"

Conan gave him puppy eyes, all innocence. "Wha - of course not! I'm just a kid!"

Totally unaffected, Heiji snorted. "Please. As if some random kid could deduct things like ya jus' did."

"So? Maybe I'm just smart like that."

"Ya live wit' Ran-san, who's a childhood friend o' Kudo, 'n ya have connections to a certain hakase, who's known Kudo fer a long while, 'n he probably gave ya these toys, 'm I right?" Heiji inquired, tugging at Conan's voice changer. "'M the Detective o' that West, Kudo. Didn't get that title fer eliminatin' what _looks_ impossible. Isn't there someth'n Holmes 'bout that?"

"'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth'," Conan quoted with a tired sigh.

"Yeah, tha's da one."

"Do I even want to know why you know about the hakase?"

"I wuz lookin' fer ya. Well, _bigger_ version 'o you. 'E's the one who pointed out the Detective Agency ta me."

Conan sighed again. "Remind me to _thank_ him properly." He looked carefully at the Osakan, wondering why he'd admitted that he was Kudo so easily, since technically Heiji had no proof at all - but, for a brief moment, it wasn't Heiji's face he saw.

An old friend.

_No way._ "Haikuro?" Conan breathed.

Heiji frowned, furrowing his eyebrows. "Haikuro?" he echoed. "Wazzat?"

"… N-no, it's nobody," Conan muttered, waving it off. He was just tired. Yes, that was it. There was no way… "Just - you reminded me of someone."

"This 'Haikuro' guy?"

"Yeah. But he's - dead." _Long, long dead._

Pause. "Sorry."

"No, it's not your fault." Conan took a deep breath, shutting his eyes. "It's just been a long day." _A long life. Please, let it stop. Let us rest. It hurts -_

"Conan-kun?" Blinking and looking up, Conan saw that Ran had approached and was gazing at him worriedly. "You okay there?"

"Yeah. I'm just tired, Ran-neechan," Conan replied childishly. Heiji looked between them, some sort of realization dawning on his face, but Conan wasn't in the mood to deal with him now. _The hakase thinks Ran doesn't know, and if Hattori's going to be talking with the hakase, then he'll do fine thinking the same._ "Can we go home now?"

"Soon," Ran said. And, somehow, her word answered his surface and hidden question, all in one.

* * *

On the ride back, Conan murmured the rest of the story to Heiji - or, at least, the same thing he told Agasa.

Once he got back home, he told Ran about the developments. She nodded with pursed lips and mentioned, very quietly, that he resembled an old friend.

"He does," Conan had responded. And that was the last they spoke of that - for now.

Cases continued as always. There was even an incident with Gomera, a popular movie series, in which the Detective Boys had been nearly driven to tears, thinking that the burned costume of Gomera meant the death of Gomera itself. Then there'd been a case involving some magicians, which briefly reminded both Conan and Ran of someone else. They tried not to think about it any further than that.

Not long after that one tided over, Yukiko ended up having a spat with Yuusaku, and returned to Japan by herself, greeting Conan along the way. When Ran asked how she was related to him, to remain in character of an ignorant person, she spontaneously claimed that he was the "nephew of the grandfather of the cousin of the daughter of the brother of my uncle!"

… Which made no sense, but Ran nodded and smiled and was about to continue back to the Detective Agency when Yukiko asked to borrow Conan for a while. Ran allowed it, probably thinking that they had a mother-son discussion that needed to be attended to.

In reality, they went to Gunma to visit Yukiko's friend. Then a murder case occurred. Of course. Worried that Yukiko would be targeted, Conan worked furiously to search for clues - eventually, he uncovered what happened and used the rather inexperienced police detective there to tell it, but wasn't able to realize the whole truth without Yuusaku popping out of the blue and helping him.

Then, he returned to Beika, solved more cases with the help of Ran, received something Agasa called the earring cellphone, solved another case, discovered that Conan and a popular singer had similar voices except Conan was _horrid_ at singing, solved more cases, saved the Detective Boys from danger, solved more cases, and did he mention solved more cases?

Ran stared at Conan. "Are you _absolutely sure_ that we did the renewal right?" she asked seriously. "Because we're _still_ attracting deaths like murder magnets. And what we did was pretty much guesswork."

"I think it's more me than you," Conan pointed out. "And yeah. I'm pretty sure we did it right. Otherwise a whole lot more people would die - and those people would be closer to us. And it would make a lot less sense. More random heart attacks. Less murders-with-motives-and-reasoning."

Pause. "Side effect? Of not renewing that first time?"

"Possibly. Unfair, though, seeing as we had no clue what we were doing."

A groan, and Ran pressed her forehead against the desk, careful not to spill her tea.

"By the way, you haven't asked how my school day was."

She lifted her head to glare at him. "How was your school day, Conan-kun?" she asked, her tone utterly _drowning_ in sarcasm.

"Great!" Conan beamed at his 'neechan'. "The Detective Boys went to investigate some suspicious stuff, but it was actually just some things being moved around, nothing gruesome or anything."

"Wonderful. So not really murders, just mysteries. I think it's Yuusaku's fault."

The door slammed open, cutting off anything Conan would've said in response. "Hey, Ran!" Sonoko shouted. "Have you seen the news?"

"What? No, I haven't. What about it?" Ran inquired, leaning back in her seat as she nursed her cup of tea.

"Kaitou 1412 is making a reappearance!" Sonoko announced.

_What?!_

Ran choked on her tea, luckily not spitting it out everywhere as the drink went down the wrong pipe in her surprise. As it was, some tea spilled over the edges of the cup, not that she cared.

Meanwhile, Conan almost fell off the couch.

"Kaitou Kid?" Ran clarified, already whipping out her phone and accessing the internet as she coughed. "You're sure?"

"Of course!"

A copy of the riddle was posted, and sure enough, it was headline news. "He's actually been active for a while, except he contained himself to a certain area, so his return isn't completely known," Ran noted, skimming through the past articles.

Conan's eyes widened. He recalled one heist, a short while ago - he happened to be in the area for a case - and when he heard about it, he had been _furious_ that someone was trying to revive Kaito Kid without understanding the first's purpose, and had tried his very best to take the imposter down.

Only to realize _that_ Kaito Kid had skill that paralleled the first. And despite his best efforts, the newer Kaito Kid managed to slip from his grasp.

He hadn't heard much about it afterward, and assumed - from what he'd decoded from the clock - that it was a professional magician trying to impress a loved one, so he'd just let it slide…

But this Kid, according to the what Ran was digging up through research now, appeared _regularly,_ and was just as skilled as the original.

"The riddle," Conan urged, nudging Ran's side eagerly. Wordlessly, she pulled it onto the screen. Then, she handed her phone to him and turned her attention to Somoko, who was waxing poetic about the thief. Disregarding them, Conan looked over the heist note.

_April Fool: When the moon separates two people, I will come to get the Black Star with the invitation of the waves. Kaito KID_

Oh, how he _missed_ these sorts of riddles. Grinning, Conan reread the notice a couple times, carefully picking out various word choices and hidden references. Several minutes later, he cracked it wide open and knew exactly where the thief would be, as well as when.

While the two girls chatted, Conan slid out of his seat and walked away, taking out his own phone. Once out of earshot, he dialed Agasa.

"Hey, hakase," Conan said the moment the other side of the line picked up. "I need a favor. Can you go through my dad's files and pull up the ones on Kaitou Kid? It might be labeled Phantom Thief 1412."

Some shuffling on the other end. "Sure, but why? You don't deal with thieves, do you?"

"Call it a hunch. Just pull it open and put it on the library desk, please."

"I will. If you're going after him, be careful, Shinichi-kun."

"Sure thing - thanks again, I'll probably drop by later to see it in a couple of days."

Ending the call, Conan returned to where Ran was speaking with Sonoko. He listened patiently as they finished their conversation, and Sonoko finally left for home.

Ran glanced at him, the door swinging shut behind Sonoko's departure. "So? You look like you're planning something."

Conan winked. "Ne, Is Ran-neechan okay with Conan-kun running off to meet Kaito Kid in the middle of the night?"

"Of course not." She smiled. "But if she doesn't know about it, then who'd be the wiser?"

"Then this conversation never happened."

"What conversation, Conan-kun?" Ran ruffled his hair. "Just don't get into too much trouble."

* * *

Getting up on the building to set up the fireworks was easy enough - he was too small to be suspected of being Kaitou Kid in disguise, so the police let him pass without a second look.

A quick look at his watch revealed that it was showtime. His thoughts were confirmed when he heard the smallest sound of silk sliding against silk behind him, along with a small gust of displaced air.

Slowly, Conan turned around to face the phantom thief, casually assessing him. He revealed nothing on his face, but inwardly, Conan frowned. _Even with this dim lighting, he looks really young - younger than twenty, at the very most. So it's not him. Of course not._

However, it took all of Conan's will to hold himself in place when Kid spoke, "Hey, little boy… What're you doing in a place like this?", because his voice was _exactly the same._

Conan hid it all behind a mask of indifference as he turned around and lit up the firework. It quickly flew off into the sky, hissing, and exploded with a brilliant flash and booming noise. "Fireworks!" Conan chirped unnecessarily. He gazed into the distance. "Oh, look! A helicopter - I think it noticed us!"

Kaitou Kid was silent for a moment, then gave a low chuckle and said, "You're not just an ordinary little brat, are you, boy?"

Smirking, Conan announced, "Edogawa Conan - _tantei sa_. Don't you think those helicopters are coming really close?" _Now, what will you do, mister imposter? Prove to me - prove to me that you are capable of holding Kid's mantle. Will you stay true to what the original would do, or will you flee?_

Behind his back, Conan flipped up the face of his tranquilizer watch.

However, Kid hardly paused before pulling out a walkie-talkie. He cleared his throat, then shouted into the device in a voice that wasn't his own, "Ah - Chaki here! I've found Kid on the roof of the Hyde City Hotel!" And without missing a beat, he switched voices and exclaimed something similar again.

… _He did it. Whoever this guy is, he's got guts, and the full confidence claiming that of _course_ he is the same as the one who vanished years ago._ Tipping his head a little, Conan closed his watch with a gentle _click._ "Clever, Kid-san," he said. "Maybe I'll let you go tonight, as thanks."

"Oh?" Kid eyed him. "Thanks for what, tantei-kun?"

Conan shrugged. "Who knows," he offered, as the helicopters arrived.

When the police officers ran onto the roof, shouting for all they were worth, Conan took a step back and let them surround the thief.

"Some way of letting me go," Kid sighed dramatically, but his grin was razor-edged as always. "Tantei-kun, did you know? A phantom thief is a creative artist who takes his prey with style, but…" A strange little item fell onto the ground, rolling slightly. "… A detective is nothing more than a critic who follows our footsteps, looking for flaws."

The flash bomb detonated.

Averting his eyes and shielding himself with his arm, Conan hid a smile. Knowing the thief would hear, he said softly, "I've heard that before, you know."

* * *

_So he's already here… And we need a secret word, huh?_ Leaning towards Ran's ear, Conan whispered, "I'll say 'raven'!"

"Then I'll say 'dove'," Ran replied in an equal whisper. Conan froze.

Something clicked, and the lights shut off. Conan tensed at Ran's side, scanning the room - but he quickly spotted the spotlight shining on Kaitou Kid, who was on the corner of the ceiling.

He nearly had a heart attack when Sonoko's mother suddenly began firing at the thief, splotches of blood appearing on the once-white suit as he toppled onto a table, limp - but breathed a huge sigh of relief upon realizing that it was just a trick.

"That was _cruel_," Conan muttered to himself, shaking his head. He let his gaze wander, idly wondering who Kid was currently disguised as, when the back of his neck prickled. Compulsively, he whirled around.

_Someone's watching me._

And not just anyone, Conan realized. _Kaitou Kid_.

Ran dragged Sonoko up to the stage, where they eagerly participated in a card magic trick. Meanwhile, Conan had a sudden thought, and asked an attendant for a list of all the guests. He flipped through the pages for a moment, but then found what he was looking for.

_Ah. I know where your target is, Kid. And I know who you are, too._

Conan returned the list, just as shouts of shock arose from the stage - apparently, the thief had hijacked the card trick, and was openly taunting now.

Not moments later, several pearls that looked very much like the counterfeits everyone was wearing rolled across the floor and sent out sudden plumes of smoke with a foreboding hissing noise. Conan knew they were harmless, as with Kid's policy, but others seemed to have forgotten, and stampeded.

In the chaos, Kid's targeted jewel vanished from Sonoko's mom's safekeeping. _And now it begins._

"Ran-neechan!" Conan latched onto Ran's arm. "Come, come, I know where Kaitou Kid is!" he exclaimed cutely. "Follow me!"

"Ah - okay, Conan-kun."

Conan dragged her through the ship, and eventually separated from the rest of the group and slowed to a halt in the boiler room.

He found the soccer ball he'd stored there earlier, and began to kick it around casually.

"Conan-kun?" Ran asked warily. "Is Kaitou Kid here?"

"Ran-neechan and I have a game we play a lot," Conan stated nonchalantly. "When we're bored and Kogorou-ojisan is investigating cases, we exchange secret words."

'Ran' stiffened.

"That's right." Conan stilled the soccer ball, pinning the disguised thief with a sharp blue stare. "And when I say 'raven', she always says… _'crow'._"

"I just felt like changing it up - it sounded suitable, since we're dealing with a magician," 'Ran' tried to explain, but 'she' froze when the soccer ball suddenly _slammed_ into the wall just beside 'her' head.

"Actually, I'm pretty impressed - I didn't even notice the switch until then," Conan continued. And he was. Usually, he could somehow _feel_ when Ran was near him, and somehow Kid had disguised well enough that such wasn't the case. _Or maybe it wasn't just the disguise._ He brushed the thought away. "Oh, and by the way, when I say 'raven', she actually says 'flock'."

Kid pouted. "You tricked me!" he whined - in his original voice, which was _weird_ to hear from Ran's face.

"Well, I only just did," Conan corrected. "She actually does say 'crow'. I lied."

Kid stared at him, completely deadpan. And then he shook his head with a muffled laugh and held up the Black Star - the jewel of this heist. "Well, you win this time, and it's not the one I'm looking for, anyway," he said, tossing it back.

Conan almost dropped it. _He knows? How'd he figure _that_ out?_

"Oh, and do watch out for your neechan," Kid added. "I'm a _perfectionist_, if you know what I mean." Winking, he tugged on his stolen dress. "It's rather cold this season - "

Conan gaped for a moment, and in that one second of surprise, Kid released a smoke bomb that obscured his vision long enough to allow the thief to escape.

"Damn you, Kid!" Conan shouted after him. But he ran for Ran anyway.

(She was found fully clothed, wrapped in a blanket, and calmly asleep in one of the lifeboats.)

* * *

Any other heists that Kaitou Kid pulled since then were located too far away to go to on a whim, and Conan was fine with ignoring the thief for a while, anyway.

Cases cropped up as per the norm, though he met a helpful police officer - Takagi-keiji - who didn't dismiss him as easily as the others did. Conan was careful to conceal most of his intelligence, but at least he didn't have to run between evidence and Ran all the time, which would've gotten suspicious eventually. He also ran into some girl who had liked him (as 'Shinichi', of course) since Middle School, but he had turned her down with both Ran and Pandora on his mind. Despite how long ago it was, Ran still wrapped Conan in a large hug afterwards.

It was the new student at school that caught his attention, though. _Haibara Ai_.

The fact that she went directly over to the empty seat beside him was strange enough. The _feeling_ he got from her was another thing - like Kid, a faded, echoed version of Ran.

He tried not to think about why, because the answer - for Ran, at least - was Pandora. And everything got messy once Pandora was involved.

So he ignored her as much as possible, and tuned out whatever she and the other Detective Boys were discussing, even as he followed them to some case they'd stumbled upon. While investigating the child's home, though, upon the mention of a lady dressed completely in black, Conan cursed under his breath.

_If this is truly the work of the crows, I can't risk the children._ Conan glanced back at the downtrodden kids, who were still searching for clues. _But I can't leave them alone, either. I'll just have to try and guide them across the safest way, and if it really is the crows…_

He didn't know what he'd do, but he'd do something. Just in case, he shot Ran a coded text explaining what was going on.

Later in the search, they found a man paying with a counterfeit bill and tailed him. It was definitely related to the kid's brother disappearing, since he was a talented artist. He could be forced to draw fakes for them, maybe under the threat that the little brother currently with the Detective Boys would be harmed.

That wasn't like the crows, so Conan breathed a sigh of relief. Still, it was dangerous. He led the others as close as he dared and tried to convince the police officers of the kidnapping, but, as expected, none of them believed him.

_And I don't have someone to be my voice… Geez, I'm getting way too reliant on Ran_. "Hey, stay here with the officers, alright?" Conan told the kids firmly. "I'll be right back - need to make a call."

"Okay," they all agreed, and he ran off.

Once he was a safe distance away from everyone and anyone who could overhear, tucked somewhere in a secluded alley, Conan pulled out his 'Shinichi' phone and called Megure-keibu, adjusting his bowtie to change his voice into Shinichi's.

A couple of rings later, the inspector picked up. "Hello? Shinichi-kun?"

"Keibu! There's a kidnapping I need you to act on," Conan said quickly. He read off the address, asked him to be careful, since the culprits had hostages, and hung up.

The problem was that when he went back to the children, they were gone - off to gather evidence of the counterfeit. And thus, in danger.

Gritting his teeth, Conan ran for the building. He ignored others' startled looks and dashed up the stairs. Eventually, he heard their voices - _don't they know to keep quiet?_ \- and reached for the handle to drag them all out the door -

The cool muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of his head. "Don't move, kid."

He was in _no mood_ for this. "Sorry, ojisan," he apologized, flicking open the lid of his tranquilizar watch. "I'm a bit busy, so you're going to have to take a nap."

And then he whipped around and shot the man directly in the forehead.

Before the body could even hit the ground, he was moving, turning the dial on his shoes and kicking the dropped gun inside the room.

It hit the hand of the lady dressed in black, forcing her to drop her own gun.

She turned, snarling, "Who - "

Conan walked calmly into the room. "What a cozy little gathering," he mocked.

"Conan-kun!" the Detective Boys chorused, sounding very relieved.

"Didn't Inuyama take care of you?!" the lady hissed.

"Oh, that old man?" Conan inquired, walking over to the side and looking through one of the boxes. He pulled out a couple of cans. "I knocked him out. Simple enough, ne? Then I kicked his gun at you. I've got really good aim, don't I?"

"K-kicked?"

"Yeah, just like - this!" Conan sent the cans flying to hit the woman and her partner, and they stumbled back with curses on their lips.

She growled and reached for the gun - but Haibara picked it up before she could.

Conan flinched at the loud gunshot, which went flying just past the lady's head. Then, he steeled himself, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

And _then_ the police arrived with Megure-keibu. How helpful.

* * *

Haibara managed to escape trouble about the gun by sobbing her eyes out. Conan volunteered to walk her home, though she led him, as he had no clue where she lived.

"Stop crying already," he said as they walked, hardly looking at her. "You held that gun in no way but a trained hold. You knew exactly what you were doing."

She paused to look at him, eyes instantly dried.

"Who are you?" Conan asked, stepping and stopping in front of her.

She shrugged. Then, she said calmly, "APTX4869."

_That rings a bell… _"What?"

"That drug you swallowed," she continued, tone airy and light. "APTX4869."

Conan twitched for his shoes. "I don't recall taking any drugs recently, you know."

"Poison, then. I'm sure I don't have the name wrong - I'm the one who created it after all…" She paused for a moment, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Perhaps I should re-introduce myself. I'm Sherry."

_Cherries. Unwilling crow. Bound wings will fail her. The silver crow will throw her into the abyss. You will not fall because she does. We will see if she has the courage to fly away to her freedom._

"Ah," Conan murmured. "You're the one trying to escape. The other crow's sister."

She froze in surprise. "How…"

He regarded her. _That's right… I remember now. I tuned it out, but she told those Detective Boys - she lives at the hakase's place. I can't tell her what I haven't told him._

"I'm a detective, Sherry," he said at last. "You two look alike. And there was no need for you to take the drug unless you wanted to escape." He advanced until he was directly in her face. "You tried to look intimidating just now, but I saw the disgust in your eyes. You _hate_ being a crow. And now you've finally flown the nest. So now what? No doubt the others hunt after your body. No doubt you have no place to go, so you come here," he gestured to the familiar neighborhood, "to the sole death that intrigued you, Shinichi Kudo, because _his_ body vanished - some other test subject of yours, perhaps mice or rats, had a single case that regressed age as well. But you kept it a secret, probably investigated my house and found my childhood clothes gone. And before your execution, you tried to kill yourself with the very same poison - but shrunk instead, and managed to escape. You came to my home, but I wasn't there. The hakase found you, and took you in. And - so now what, Sherry?"

He stopped himself before emotions could force red into his eyes, but she didn't seem to notice.

"If you're so good at deducting," she whispered, real tears in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks, stumbling into him and grabbing at his jacket, "then why couldn't you save her - why couldn't you save my sister? You knew, didn't you? So why, why?"

He had no answer, and she screamed her grief into the skies.

* * *

_... tsudzuku ..._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

My last update before November. I felt kinda guilty leaving you all alone for a full month plus some, so here's a _little_ compensation chapter. I say "little" extremely sarcastically because I tried to cram a lot of stuff in this chapter, which is now almost 9,000 words. Instead of the usual 7,000. I also want to even out the chapters a bit, move the events to different chapters and stuff. Because the first few chapters were pretty short in comparison to this one, and I've still got a lot of ground to cover in the last one.

But I'm almost done. Maybe I'll squeeze everything about the FBI into the next chapter and be done with it all. And then start actual plot! Yay! That'll probably make chapter updates a lot sparser than they have been recently, though.

Oh, and if you haven't noticed yet, Shinichi is really, really bad with names. That's because he's lived for so long he doesn't have any reason to memorize people's names he's only going to use once, maybe twice. Of course it's not because I get tired of copying down the manga and its random names! Pssh, where'd you get that idea?

WARNING! SPOILER ALERT NEXT CHAPTERS!

Next chapters will include lots of plot. Spoiler plot. If you haven't gotten past the whole arc with the discovery that, hey, this one person isn't quite as dead as the BO and most of the FBI think, I suggest you go catch up on that and read this afterwards. Just a little warning. Actually it'd be best if you just catch up to current.

Reminder: No update on NaNoWriMo, AKA November.

**xThomas**: Just quick little thing, I know Ran needs more screen time, but she doesn't get much in the manga, which I'm currently following. I swear, though, once I get on to my own plot, she'll have plenty of things to do on screen. Like kicking butt.

**shinshinjane**: Thank you, I'm glad you like it!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'm responding through PM - but if that's turned off, I'll put it here, if it was for the last chapter. Also, thanks for reading!

* * *

*posted: Oct 20th, 2014


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